Possibly Possible
by VampireNaomi
Summary: Captain Black has a brother whom he has never met. He starts searching for him, but the truth could be too much for him to handle.
1. Chapter 1

Sigh, I own nothing and yadayadayada... I'm so tired, it's about 0:37 in the morning and I'm still writing this and listening to the most stupid radio channel in the world.

Okay, this story is dedicated to **Finn**, one of my most loyal readers who continuously keeps asking me to write something about Finn so I decided to write something to silence her. ;D Not really, I've always wanted to try this freaky idea of mine and **Finn** gave me a good reason to do it.

May this please you.

**POSSIBLY POSSIBLE **

**Chapter 1 **

"So Jackie, I can trust you with this?"

Jackie nodded and gave a look at the brown envelope in his fingers.

"Of course, Augustus. I will do it immediately," he said. Captain Black smiled looking a bit embarrassed.

"Thank you. I would do it myself, but as you can see, I am very busy at the moment," he said pointing at his messy desk.

The envelope felt harsh in Jackie's hand. He coughed.

"May I ask why you want me to take this to the TV-station?" he asked. Black stiffened for a while, but laughed then sounding just a bit nervous.

"Well, I guess you'd find out sooner or later. Sooner actually if they accept me," he said and opened one of his drawers.

Jackie stared. He had known Black a good while, they were old friends and he had many times been in his office talking about stuff, but never ever had he seen Black open that particular drawer.

Black took out a framed picture. It was old and white spots were somewhere on it. There was a young woman holding a little boy in the picture.

Captain Black gave the picture a thoughtful look.

"Jackie, this is - "

* * *

_Three and a half weeks later..._

Finn leaned lazily against the green sofa and watched football onthe television. His favourite team was losing again and he sipped his beer. Then he grimaced. Ratso had been shopping again and bought some horrible liquid.

Yuck.

He placed the can on the small table next to him and tried to concentrate on the match. "Dude, this sucks." he commented though there was no one to listen. Chow and Ratso didn't like football as much as he did, they were more interested in baseball and even wrestling.

There was a loud bang when the door was opened and his two friends came in. This was Finn's apartment, but his two friends practically lived there anyway. Things were quite good now. Chan and his family had finally managed to drive Shendu out of Valmont and no new magical threats had been seen in a while. Valmont and his Enforces could concentrate on crimes again and slowly the financial damage Shendu had caused was starting to heal.

"Phew, we almost missed it," Ratso said glancing at his watch and sitting next to Finn. Chow sat on the other side of the Irish man and caught the remote control.

"Yeah, if you hadn't reminded me I would have totally forgotten," he said switching channels right when the game had turned interesting.

"Hey! I was watching that!" Finn complained sitting straighter.

Ratso glanced at him.

"But a new series starts today," he said.

"And we want to watch it. There's two of us so our voices beat yours," Chow said making sure Finn couldn't snatch the remote back to himself.

"But I was here first! And it's my television!" the man complained. He was surehis teamwould lose again, but he still wanted to see it. Then he would at least have a good reason to swear and drink too much for a change.

"Sorry, means nothing," Chow said and then gestured everyone to be quiet. Finn snorted softly and frowned turning to watch the programme anyway. Damn, if it was another soap opera he would kill the duo.

A huge picture of a magnifying glass appeared on the screen and in the middle of it flashed the text "Your Detectives". A tune that was probably meant to be mysterious was playing on the background and Finn glanced at his friends.

"What kind of show is this?" he asked.

"You haven't heard of it? Wow, maybe you should read more magazines," Ratso said.

"This is a new series where they look for missing persons. They have several private detectives and people can give them assignments to find their missing relatives and friends. Then viewers can watch as the hunt proceeds and if the target is found both he and the person who wanted to find him are invited to the studio for a big reunion," Chow said.

"Another reality TV-show? They are all so fake," Finn stated not getting why his friends wanted to watch crap like this. He could have understood that Ratso liked it, but he thought Chow was too intelligent to like this stuff.

"Hssh! It begins!" Ratso said and they all silenced. It was an unwritten rule that no talking was allowed when they watched TV, if there wasn't a very good reason, that is.

A man dressed in a neat suit appeared on the screen. He had dark hair.

"Welcome, viewers, in our show 'Your Detectives'! We got a massive amount of assignments and pleads and for this very first episode out detectives have chosen a mission for themselves. I am your host, Adam Rogers," the man said.

The camera moved to show a youngish woman who was dressed in a tight jacket and dark shoes. Her long hair was tied up and she was wearing glasses.

"This is our first detective, miss Hooper. And this is her case!"

Next an old a bit overweight woman appeared, and her greyish hair fell on her shoulders.

"My name is Victoria Jones. Five years ago my grandson Chris disappeared on his way to home from school and the police has found out nothing. His parents are already dead and he was my responsibility. This year I was told that they are not going to continue the search and I almost lost my hope, but then I heard of this show. I knew that this is the only way to find Chris," the woman said with a soft, yet creaking voice.

Then there was a picture of Chris and some basic information. Apparently the boy had been nine when he had disappeared and lived with his grandmother in some small town in eastern America. The school was located in an area that had a good reputation and it was a mystery where Chris had gone.

"So miss Hooper is trying to solve this mystery. But before getting too deep into that, here's our next detective!" Adam said.

The other detective looked much more believable. He was maybe a bit under fifty years old and he had dark hair with hints of grey and stinging black eyes. He was dressed in a rain coat that made him look like Sherlock Holmes.

"Here is mister Bennett who will too start to work on a case. An impressing guy, isn't he?" Adam rumbled.

What they saw next was a huge shock to the three men.

"Dude, that's Black!" Finn exclaimed and Chow laughed.

"I wonder who he is looking for," he stated.

"Hahaha! His brain!" Ratso said.

Black looked completely normal in TV. He was wearing his good old dark coat and looked like he had arrived there straight from work.

"This has to be good," Chow said in amusement. Finn nodded, compared to this a football match was nothing. He was also curious to see who Black was after.

"Maybe he's looking for a missing girlfriend?" Ratso asked.

"So you believe he has had a girlfriend?" Chow said.

"Well, boyfriend then," Ratso threw back. Finn told them to be quiet.

"Shut up, I want to hear what he is saying," he said.

"My name is Augustus Black and I'm looking for my stepbrother. He is a bit older than me and was born in the first marriage of my mother. When my mother got divorced her son was given to her ex-husband and I've never seen him. Now I'd like to contact my brother, but I only know his first name, Naoise," Black said.

Chow laughed.

"Naoise? What a stupid name! Who has a name like that?" he asked.

"Black's brother?" Ratso suggested being just as amused. Finn laughed a bit.

"Yeah, a stupid name," he said a bit lamely and took his beer can from the table. He sipped the drink not caring about the bad flavour and kept his eyes on the screen.

Then there was a picture on. There was a beautiful woman with long red hair and green eyes, though the colours were so bad that they couldn't really be seen. The woman was holding a small boy with the same hair and eyes in her arms.

Finn spat his beer on the floor.

"Eww, what's up with you?" Chow asked when Finn coughed next to him like no tomorrow.

"Should we call a doctor?" Ratso asked, but Finn gestured them he was all right.

"I got something in my throat," he muttered not letting his eyes leave the television screen.

Sweet damn, he was Black's stepbrother!

* * *

Black sighed and closed the television. Well, it was out now and if he was lucky he'd meet Naoise pretty soon.

He was nervous.

He had never seen Naoise except in pictures and he had always been curious to meet his brother. Black had no other siblings and the idea of a mysterious big brother had always fascinated him. He had so many times asked his mother to get Naoise to live with them, but she had never done it.

Why?

Black had got the impression that his mother loved her first son truly. And yet she had never brought Naoise to visit themand never visited the boy. When Black had been very young he had been glad, mother didn't have to care about anyone else besides him.

But when he had grown a bit older and got wiser he had realised that something was very wrong. He was never allowed to ask about mother's first husband. Black didn't even know his surname.

His mother, Angela, was a born Irish. Her first husband had also been born in the green island and they had married there. And their son Naoise had been born there too and the family had lived in Ireland until Naoise had turnedtwo and they had movedto America.

There the happy family had been broken and they had got divorced. Naoise was left to live with his father and Angela had later married Thomas Black. Augustus Black was borna year later. He had his mother's red hair - or would have had if he didn't shave his head - and green eyes, just like his stepbrother.

He placed his hands on his desk. How long would it take before Bennett contacted him?

And what was Naoise like nowadays? Had he a family and children? Black didn't know how to react to that. Because of his work he himself had no time to date or even dream about getting serious. He wanted children though, he liked them and the thought of having a son one day was very fascinating.

But at first he had to find a woman who wasn't disturbed by his hard work.

He frowned at himself, he had let himself slip again. The most important thing to do was to find Naoise and get to know him. Maybe he could have the older brother he had always wanted after all.

"May I come in?"

Black lifted his eyes and flashed Jackie a smile. What would he do without his loyal friend?

"Sure Jackie. Something special?" he asked. Jackie sat on a free chair and shrugged.

"Not really. Or actually yes, I came to see how you are," he said.

"Well, as you can see, I'm perfectly fine. What could be wrong?" Black asked and chuckled. Jackie smiled frowning.

"You are nervous. The Captain Black I know is never nervous," he said. Black snorted.

"The whole America knows I'm looking for my stepbrother. If you were me, wouldn't you be nervous?" he asked.

"Well, maybe. But you don't really have a reason to feel nervous. Only few that I know have the courage to announce a thing like that in public television. I couldn't probably do it, I don't like talking about my private life to anyone else than those who I trust," Jackie said.

Black glanced at him.

"Do you think I am a chatterbox?" he asked. Had it been a wrong thing to do after all? And why the heck was he feeling this uncertain about everything?

Jackie laughed.

"You? A chatterbox? Hardly, I have to force every word out of your mouth," he said.

Black shrugged.

"Do you think Bennett will find him?" he asked.

"I'm sure of it. He seemed to know what he's doing," Jackie said.

"Thank you."

"Actually I didn't come here to just see you. I came to fetch you out," Jackie said then.

"Out?" Black asked lifting a brow. Out, now, why?

"Yes," Jackie said, "You need something else to think about. Besides, now that your brother will be found you will certainly spend all of your time with him so this is my last chance to take my friend our."

"I don't know Jackie, I have work to do..."

"Well, if you think that this is more important than a free Friday night..." Jackie saidpretending to be deep in thought. It was something he didn't say very often. He was a very responsible person who thought work was important, but he could see when it was important to relax a bit.

And Black definitely had to relax now.

"You're on. Let's go." the bold man said.

* * *

Finn swallowed and stared at the surface of the bar table.

Damn.

Damn.

Damn.

He gulped his drink down and knocked the glass on the table.

Damn.

He had never thought this was possible. He had never thought about this even in his nightmares, so why did it have to be true?

Of course he had always known that Captain Black shared the surname with the man who had stolen his mother and broken his family, but he had never thought more of it. There had to be thousands ofBlacks in America, so what there the odds that _this_ Black was his brother?

He had never met his brother, not even heard his name. Father had called mother's new son the small bastard and little Finn had never bothered to ask the boy's name. All he had known was that some man named Black had come and taken mom away.

"That stupid small bastard..." he muttered to himself using the name his already passed away father had come up with. Now when he had a face for the name it sounded better.

He sighed.

Black was never to be allowed to find out, no matter what. The man of that stupid TV-show - was his name Barney or Bennett or something - would never find him. Never, Finn swore he'd do anything to stop it.

And even if the truth came out Finn would never goon television to humiliate himself. What would Chow and Ratso say? What would Valmont say? He would definitely get fired and then his whole life would lay in ruins.

It was so ironic, during this time Black had tried to ruin it all by arresting them, but now he managed to do it by merely existing.

"Damn," he said to himself. He knew he looked very pathetic sitting there, but he didn't care at all.

And then he heard a voice that he knew and stiffened.

"I don't know Jackie, I don't usually come to places like this."

"Me neither, but come on. Remember what we were like when we were younger! Back then we used to visit these places every night!"

Black snorted.

"And here I though being an archaeologist had made you double boring. Apparently I was wrong."

Jackie laughed.

"I have to be good influence on Jade. If she ever finds out what I did when I was younger..." he said and they both laughed. It was a long while since they had last been out like this and this felt really refreshing.

Suddenly Black stiffened.

"Jackie, look," he said.

"What?" Jackie asked, but then he too saw what Black had noticed.

Finn.

The Irish man stared at them for a while, placed his glass on the table and left.

"I have to arrest him," Black said and was about to move when Jackie stopped him.

"Let it be, you are not on duty. Besides, he wasn't doing anything bad here and you'd never catch him alone. This part of the city is full of hiding places," he said.

Black sighed.

"I guess you are right. But the opportunity was sogood."

They found a table and ordered drinks they had never heard of. Jackie avoided the subject of Black's brother, he wanted to give the man something else to think about.

And yet he had to admire Black for his bravery. Many wouldn't have had the courage to go to TV just like that. Except those who were desperate to get attention.

Jackie was sure Naoise would be happy to know that he had such a good brother.

**To be continued... **

**AN:** And if someone didn't know it, "Naoise" is an Irish first name for boys and means "first choice". "Finn" is an Irish first name too and means "fair", but I figured it would be a bit too obvious if Black had told his brother's first name is Finn. So in this fic it's his surname.


	2. Chapter 2

Nothing is mine. Especially not JCA or the characters.

**POSSIBLY POSSIBLE **

**Chapter 2**

__

The door banged loudly and Finn lifted his eyes from the Math book. There was a fairly well drawn human figure forming on one page. He had tried to do his homework, but couldn't and Math didn't even interest him at all.

Besides, the teacher didn't even bother to ask if he had done anything or not.

"Dad?" he asked.

There was no answer, but that wasn't actually special. With a quiet sigh Finn let his pen fall and stood up to go and see in what condition his father was this time.

Though he knew already, but it was good if he pretended he cared.

"Dad?" he asked again in the hall. He stopped there for a while. Just as he had thought.

Seamus Finn lay on the floor that was covered by a new and clean carpet and seemed to be full asleep. Well, this time he was calm and would probably sleep until the early morning.

The bruises he had got last week were still sore, but he didn't care. Finn was just twelve, but still old enough to realise that his father loved him and never hit or hurt him on purpose.

It was the work of the demons that lived inside of his head and made him drink, shout and argue.

"Come on, dad," he said surprisingly softly for his age and shook his father's shoulder gently, but sharply enough to stir some life in the man.

No reaction, if you didn't count snoring.

Finn snorted at himself and shrugged. His father wasn't a small man and he didn't think he'd ever be able to carry him out of the hall. It was for the best to just let him be, he'd wake up when Finn was already gone.

He went and got his father a blanket from his bedroom and covered the sobering man with it wondering how he had managed to get home. Many of the other men around there couldn't do it, but slept on pavements, stairs or the street. On the other hand, the area where they lived had a pretty good reputation. Finn doubted he would have been allowed to live with his father if anyone knew what this place was really like.

Seamus Finn and his son Naoise lived in a poor area in New York. Naoise hated his first name and had made sure that everyone called him by his surname. He wasn't physically very strong, but he had asharp tongue and he was smart, unlike many others of his age.

But that didn't help him in school.

Finn wasn't book wise and his smartness didn't help him in solving mathematical problems or learning a new language. He spoke only English, they had moved from Ireland when he had been too young to speak well that Celtic language called Gaelic. His father didn't like that at all, he thought his son should have been able to speak his own mother language.

Hah, he didn't even know his mother so why to bother?

Finn returned to his book listeningto his father's snoring and sat down. He looked at his drawing and the failed homework for a while before frowning, threw the book on the floor and went to get his jacket.

He had better things to do than this.

Finn rubbed his temples and tried to make the memories go away. Despite that that the times when father had been silent were the best times of his childhood he didn't want to remember anything. Thinking about those things made him remember everything more clearly and that was something he didn't want.

He swallowed.

He knew he had to come up with something, but what? The most important thing was of course to make sure no one ever found out he and Black were related. He had decided that in the early beginning of this nightmare.

But what after that?

He knew the truth himself, even if no one else found out could he continue on with his life as if nothing had happened? Could he face Black and Chan and the others like before? Could he do it?

With a sigh he leaned back in his uncomfortable chair. He had returned home after meeting Black in the bar, he most certainly didn't want to see the man's face. At least not his eyes.

It was funny. Why hadn't he ever noticed that Black had the exactly same eyes than his - their, Finn reminded himself bitterly - mother? Beautiful green eyes and so soft that you almost wanted to drown in them.

His father had kept all pictures of his ex-wife and treasured them like they were the most valuable thing in the world. Finn had been allowed to view them too and in them he had seen a beautiful woman whose long red hair and green eyes must have charmed many men in the past.

Most of the pictures alsofeatured his father, who had once been young and slim, his face had been happy with no scars left by drinking and fighting. But his favourite pictures had been the ones that had his younger self in them. He had been very little in them, merely a baby in most and in some he had just learned to walk. He had liked these pictures, in them his mother held him and sometimes his father was there too. The pictures had seemed to be from another world and Finn didn't remember had he ever thought they held any truth.

He wondered what his life would have been like without Black's father?

Finn shook his head, it wasn't important why his parents had divorced. But why hadn't his mother taken him with her, ever visited or even sent a card? It confused him.Or maybe 'confuse' was a wrong word, he was totally disturbed by it.

And hurt.

He frowned. He hadn't thought about it in years, but had managed to hide all nasty memories and hurt feelings somewhere inside him. And there they would still have been there if that stupid Black hadn't taken part in that stupid programme!

He hit his fist against the table with a quiet thud.

He was in the first square again, what was he going to do?

"Hey Finn, you all right?"

He flinched and turned to look behind him where Chow and Ratso stood watching him. Ratso wore a worried expression on his face, Finn couldn't really say anything about Chow because of the man's orange glasses. He was probably worried too, he was always worried about something.

He flashed them a smile that was supposed to be reassuring.

"Heh, sure dude. What could bother me?" he asked.

Chow shrugged.

"I don't know, you've been acting all weird after that TV-show," he said.

Ratso nodded.

"Yeah, you aren't usually like this," he added.

"Well, I have been in a sour mood lately. A friend of mine told me that my team managed to score, but they still lost. You know how much football means to me, I am probably going to be gloomy for a while," Finn said after quick thinking.

"Uhhuh," Ratso said watching him with doubt. Chow didn't buy this story at all, but didn't mouth his suspicions. He peered at his friend over his glasses and Finn knew Chow didn't believe him.

He also knew that Chow would do anything to find out what was going on.

Chow, another new name on the list of people who were never allowed to find out.

* * *

Captain Black sat behind his desk and went through some reports his agents had sent. It was a day since he and Jackie had had fun like they had used to. Black couldn't even remember anymore when he had last time seen Jackie drinking that much and it really amused him.

Nowadays Jackie was so responsible. It wasn't a bad thing, Black had to admit that he too had grown out from his "Let's-dance-Riverdance-on-the-bar-table-wearing-only-our-underpants!" phase, but Jackie had over done the whole thing. Maybe it was because he was now the guardian of an eleven-year-old girl and had to be a good influence on her.

They had been out so late that Jackie had slept in the Section 13 instead of returning home. He had of course phoned Uncle so that no one got worried, but despite that Jade had rushed there the first thing in the morning to greet her uncle.

Black still smiled as he remembered how Jackie had explained his headache by telling that they had been attacked by a group of shady crooks who had managed to surprise them. It wasn't that unlikely. It happened all the time in the life of Jackie Chan.

Jade had of course thought it was cool and demanded them to count her in when the attackers came back.

He yawned and tried to concentrate on the report that told what Section 7 had been up to lately. It wasn't actually his business, but the heads of all Sections followed each other's doings very carefully to see if someone was getting too arrogant or involved in shady business.

Suddenly the door of his office was opened and a muscular man dressed in a grey shirt, short black jacket and dark trousers stepped in. He had black hair that was already getting grey from his temples, piercing blue eyes and tanned face.

"Harris," Black said clearly surprised.

"Black," Harris greeted with a nod.

Arnold Harris was the head of Section 4 and one of the few that got along with Black. They couldn't be described as friends because their relationship wasn't that deep, but they weren't on each other's throats all the time like those who led Sections 12 and 5.

But what was Harris doing here? Section 4 took care of Las Vegas where Black had worked before being promoted to Section 13.

"A surprise to see you here," he said offering his hand and the older man shook it.

"I didn't come to just pay a visit, I have serious news," Harris said getting to the point. He had never liked talking and always said only what was necessary.

Black knew immediately that something was going on.

"What is it?" he asked seriously momentarily forgetting that Bennett hadn't contacted him at all. He knew that Harris would have never bothered to come here without a very good reason.

Harris sat in a chair in front of Black and crossed his legs.

"Jay Flick is here," he said.

Black blinked.

"Jay Flick? In San Francisco?" he asked then.

"Didn't I just say that?"

"What is he doing here? Isn't his organisation in Las Vegas?" Black asked dodging the question of his colleague. Harris nodded.

"It is, but we are certain that he and few of his toughest goons have come to San Francisco. We don't know why though, maybe here is something that is valuable to him. Or maybe he wants to spread his power," he said.

"San Francisco is the area of the Dark Hand. Why would Flick want to come here? Except if his own territory was threatened by someone else."

"And it is. New groups are forming all the time and the old have to fight for their power. It is actually a miracle that no one has tried to overthrow the Dark Hand already," Harris said. Then he snorted.

"Maybe they don't want to defy a certain Captain," he added then. It was a rare compliment from someone like him who never praised anyone. On the other hand, Black had been his student and learned much from him.

"So this is important enough for you to come and tell it personally instead of just sending a message?" Black asked. He didn't like this, his life was already filled with work and he didn't want to get involved with two criminal organisations instead of just one.

Besides, how would he have enough time for Naoise if he had to work all the time?

Harris snorted.

"You know Jay Flick has always been my main target. He has just escaped from prison just to find out that he has lost most of his territory, reputation and men," he said and Black could almost swear that there was a slight ring of guilt in Harris' voice.

But why would that be? He decided to forget the whole idea.

"So he is trying to overthrow the Dark Hand now when Valmont is weak too," he guessed.

"Precisely. I don't know what you did Black, but it sure caused a lot of troublefor that English snake," Harris said.

Black frowned slightly. Harris sure was in a talkative mood today.

"Actually a friend of mine did everything. His name is Jackie Chan and he ruined Valmont's plans faster than anyone else could have. If someone here will catch Jay Flick, it will be him," Black explained. He knew he could never tell Harris the truth about Shendu and other demons so he hoped they wouldn't discuss this matter anymore.

Harris nodded and seemed interested.

"Really? He must besome of a man then. And I hope you are right. I don't like it that Jay Flick is on the loose," he said and Black believed that.

Arnold Harris and Jay Flick had been fighting with each other as long as he had been in the picture. No matter what Flick was up to Harris always wanted to be there making sure that everything went fine. He had chased him for over ten years and sometimes Black thought Harris was obsessed with Flick.

The hatred he feltfor the crime lord was much stronger than what Black felt against his own nemesis Valmont. He was sure that Harris wasn't here to just inform him, the man wanted to send Jay Flick back where he belonged.

Personally.

* * *

_... after the court's decision Mr. Evans didn't want to give a comment or let a picture of himself be taken. He assured that he will complain, but according to the judge he will never win. Mrs. Evans, who is pleased with the result, agrees and..._

Greg Bennett shook his head a bit while going through old news articles that were at least somehow connected to custody battles. But this article couldn't be what he was looking for. Mrs. Evans was black and born in America. The parents of this mysterious Naoise were Irish, so Bennett started to read the next article.

In the beginning his mission had seemed easy, but then Black had told him that the only thing he knew about his brother was the first name and things had got complicated. Bennett had once been a cop, but had soon become a private detective and he was fascinated by this mystery.

Why hadn't Augustus Black never been told the old surname of his mother? Why was Naoise and everything else of her past so carefully hidden? Bennett was sure there was more to this thanmet the eye and he desired to find it out.

It would have been so easy if Angela Black had still been alive, but she had died five years ago, two years after her husband Thomas. He had probably lost the only peoplewho knew the truth of this and it really disturbed Bennett.

So all he could do was to go through old news articles that he had found in a library in New York. No one had said that New York was the place where to look for, but something told him he had to start there. Of course it could be that Black had remembered that his mother had got many letters from there, but Bennett preferred to think that it was his inner detective that told him what to do.

_... today the court has made the decision of the custody battle of the Finn family. The couple got divorced last June when Angela Finn wanted it. Though the law is usually on the mother's side the child - a four-year-old son Naoise - was given to the father due to Mrs. Finn's heavy use of alcohol..._

Bennett frowned.

He had clearly found what he had been looking for, but it wasn't what he had expected. He read the short article quickly and switched off the computer.

Strange.

According to the article Angela Finn had been a very unstable person who had had a bad alcohol problem. Bennett was sure that if that was the truth Black would have told it, but the man had said that his mother had been a very honourable woman.

He rubbed his cheek as he always did when he was confused.

Oh well, at least he had found out Naoise's surname, if he even used it anymore. He decided he would look for more articles concerning the Finn family and try to find out something else.

Like where they had lived.

**To be continued...**


	3. Chapter 3

Nothing is mine. Nothing is mine. Nothing is mine.

**POSSIBLY POSSIBLE **

**Chapter 3**

"All right men, we have a problem."

Valmont stood his arms crossed in front of him and eyed his closest men. Thy all, Finn, Chow Ratso and Hak Foo, were there and the Brit didn't think any of them knew what was going on.

After all, when had idiots started to know something?

"Well, what is it?" Chow asked shrugging. He wasn't actually interested, he wanted to spend his spare time pondering about what was wrong with Finn instead of running in these extra meetings. Valmont didn't even pay them any extra for this.

Valmont glanced at him.

"That's what I'm trying to explain."

"Uhhuh."

It was silent for a while when Valmont waited if anyone wanted so say something. He was slightly surprised to notice that Finn was going to keep his jaw shut. Maybe miracles did happen.

The man seemed a bit distant, but Valmont didn't bother to give it another thought.

"Jay Flick has come to San Francisco," he announced shortly. He didn't dare to hope that any of his men knew who Jay Flick was, but he wished they kept an eye on their competitors.

"I see. Is he your friend or something?" Ratso asked. Hak Foo glanced at him in irritation, but didn't say anything. He rarely said something so it wasn't strange.

"No. He used to be a competitor, but now he has become my enemy. And your enemy too," Valmont said.

He tapped at the table with hiscane and showed them a map of San Francisco. His stick pointed at the area where the Dark Hand's small HQ was.

"Jay Flick has come and intruded our territory. It is most clear what he wants," he said.

"How many men does he have with him?" Hak Foo asked. He had already realised what was going on and was the most interested in how bad the situation was.

"Not many, but they are all trained mercenaries and - hey, are you listening to me?" Valmont replied turning to stare at Finnat the end of his sentence. The Irish man stood a bit away from others and seemed to be lost in his own mind, and that was odd behaviour from him.

"Finn? Still alive?"

Finn lifted his gaze just to meet the stare of Valmont's eyes.

"What?" he asked.

The English crime lord shook his head. "Do I pay you for robbing the banks in the dream land?" he asked.

Finn blinked as if he had just realised where he was.

"Eh, sorry Big V. I was inmy thoughts," he said quickly feeling everyone's eyes on him. He should be more careful, no one was to find out that something was wrong.

"Well, come out of them then. We have a serious problem that can not be solved by sleeping," Valmont said sharply. Maybe he on some level cared about his men, but he cared about money even more and wasn't actually the type of man to go soft for nothing.

Finn snorted.

"Sure, Big V. What is this Jay Flick like?" he asked.

"So you actually managed to listen. I am surprised," Valmont said, "But as I was saying before, we have to be very careful and do as the plan says. Jay Flick with his partners has got rid of his enemies before and stolen their territories and the result has never been nice."

"What do you mean?" Ratso asked.

Valmont glanced at him.

"They can take care of their rivals. Permanently and violently," he said.

"So they think they can kill us?" Chow asked. They had all faced death many times, but the Dark Hand had never been as weak as now. They didn't really have money, men and this place where they were now wasn't very safe.

"That is what I mean. And that's why we will have to work."

"What is the plan like?" Finn asked deciding to take part in the conversation to seem more active.

"I don't know yet," Valmont replied.

"So we don't have a plan?" Chow stated and it was clear he had a bad hunch about this.

Valmont shook his head, but looked as self-confident as he always did.

"No, but I am sure I will come up with something that works. Eventually. In the meantime you keep your eyes open and look what you can find out. Flick can be anywhere and anyone can work for him."

* * *

"You probably don't want us to come with you?" Chow asked later that day when Finn was going out. The Irish man turned around looking guilty, he had tried to leave without anyone noticing.

He shrugged.

"I will meet this guy I haven't seen in ages. It's some personal," he lied quickly though he knew Chow wouldn't believe him. Chow could be nervous and even hysteric at times, but he had the ability to see when someone was lying.

Especially when it was his friend.

_But how long would he call me his friend if he knew the truth?_ Finn thought bitterly.

Chow crossed his arms on his chest and tilted his head.

"I see," he said in suspicion.

"Yep," Finn replied.

They stood there in silence and stared at each other, then glanced at the ceiling as if there was something really important.

"Yep," Finn said again. He opened the door and went out. "See you later Chow!" he added and Chow managed to catch a glimpse of him before the door banged shut.

He heard steps and turned to see Ratso.

"Something is wrong," Ratso stated before Chow managed to say anything and the Chinese man stared at him in surprise.

"You've noticed it too?" he asked.

"Well sure, I am not stupid. Something is bothering Finn," Ratso said. Chow realised he had underestimated his friend and thought that he'd never notice something was going on. But he had forgotten that Ratso was a good friend.

And a good friend never had to be a professor to know when a friend had problems.

"I agree. But I have no idea what it could be," he said.

* * *

Cold wind blew against him when he stepped out. Finn looked around on the streets of San Francisco and sighed.

_Cold wind blew against him when he stepped out. Finn looked around on the streets of New York and snorted. He knew that if his father ever found out where he was going he'd get beaten up worse than ever._

_But dad never had to find out, he was home drunk and wouldn't miss his son._

_The streets were filled with trash and dirt and he had to jump over the worst heaps to keep his shoes from getting too dirty. Finn didn't like dirt and had decided to move away as soon as possible._

_He didn't really read newspapers, but a few times his eyes had caught articles on divorces and battles of custody. Almost every time the child was given to the mother and never sent to live in a place like this. Well, this place had been nice when he had been little, but now it most certainly was not._

_It seemed no one was interested in the children after media had lost their interest in the particular case._

_But he didn't care about it, his life had a meaning without clean streets and a fancy school. He knew exactly what he wanted and he was going to make his dream come true._

_He would be rich. So filthy rich that he could move anywhere and do anything he wanted._

_"Hey Finn!" he was welcomed when he arrivedto the garden of an abandoned house where kids used to meet each other._

_He didn't reply, just nodded with a smirk._

_"So, is something going on?" he asked and walked to the others. There were six boys and two girls with him. The youngest of them didn't look older than seven, but the oldest were over sixteen._

_Finn himself was somewhere in the middle of the age line. He was other of the two twelve-year-old boys of the group._

_The oldest of them, Alex, glanced at him._

_"If you mean what out guest said last week, yes. He contacted me yesterday. Everything is fine, this depends on us now."_

_Finn nodded. They all knew what was going on and they accepted it._

_The first step on his way to riches._

Finn snorted. He wasn't rich, but that had still been his first step to become what he was now. He hadn't wondered if his decision had been the right one. He had taken care of those thought years ago as a rookie.

But he still didn't want to remember his first jobs, they seemed so amateurish and childish now.

Where was he going?

Finn stopped to look around and shrugged. Who would have thought that he'd be too in thought to notice where he was going. He, who never thought too much in public.

It was all Black's fault. If the man hadn't decided to disturb old matters that were not his business everything would still be fine.

That cursed Black, how Finn hated him!

* * *

He sat in a red arm chair and enjoyed his cigarette. He wasa short, but still muscular man and his brown hair already had some grey stripes. He was wearing glasses that shattered his formal image and he managed to look very relaxing despite that the apartment wasn't very nice.

It wasn't what he was used to.

Next to his chair stood a bird cage and a yellow bird with red wings sat inside it. The bird had an orange beak and black eyes.

"It's a quarter past three. Jacey will arrive in three minutes, Darling," Jay Flick said to the bird and blew out a cloud of smoke.

"Chirp," the bird, Darling, chirped and sounded happy. It wasn't intelligent enough to realise what its master did for work, but it understood this man was the one who filled its cup with bird seeds and brushed its feathers gently.

To Darling it didn't matter if Jay Flick was an escaped crime lord, all that the bird cared about was that the man loved all kinds of birds. Any bird could sense that.

Maybe Flick loved birds more than humans, who knew.

The hand of his watch moved fora few minutes and suddenly the door was opened and a tall man stepped in. He was lanky, he had short black hair, brown eyes and he was dressed in very ordinary clothes. His black T-shirt could have been seen on anyone and his torn jeans gave him a bit punkish look.

"Oh, hello Jacey. I was expecting you," Flick said friendly and stubbed out his cigarette.

Jacey nodded. He was a sharp man who looked like he wouldn't hesitate a moment to kill someone. And he most certainly wouldn't, he had got in prison after killing a little girl somewhere in Iowa and Flick had really seen the bother to get him in his gang.

Jacey was one of the few that were forever loyal to him and that was why he had been chosen to be in this operation.

"Well, what have you found out?"

"It looks good. The Dark Hand is weak and Valmont has only a handful of men. Only one of them is a fighter, the others are weak fools who won't disturb us," Jacey answered.

Flick thought about it a while.

"If I were you I wouldn't underestimate them. You may be right about those fools, but we still can't let them be. Actually, they could prove to be useful," he said.

"How?" Jacey wanted to know.

Flick rose from his sitting position and turned to talk to his bird. He had had Darling only for a short while, but he already loved it and could never think about giving it up. It was funny actually, he had never cared about any human and a little bird made him lose his heart.

"Jacey has a lot to learn about human mind, doesn't he Darling?" he asked the bird who didn't understand a word but was happy to get some attention.

Flick fed Darling some seeds and snorted then.

"All human are cowards within, especially criminals. This fighter of Valmont's is one too. Good and brave men never fight against the law," he said.

Jacey frowned.

"I don't understand what you mean," he admitted.

"That is very simple, ask Darling. It knows. Valmont's fighter can be tough now when he has his weak partners, but when he is alone he is nothing. All we need is to get rid of those fools and that's it."

"So you want us to get take care of them?" Jacey made sure.

"Yes, but not with one shot. Kill them one by one so that Valmont will realise what is going on. I know you can pick the first victim. And oh yeah, remind Barbara of that she should not get too excited. She can be so frustratingly violent and temperamental," Jay Flick said.

"What about Section 13? I hear they have strong men. They could be trouble," Jacey pointed out and a shadow was cast on Flick's face.

"If that happens don't hesitate to kill them. But remember that Augustus Black is mine and only mine. I won't rest before I have had my revenge," he said.

* * *

_"Mom!"_

Naoise Finnstumbled to his mother holding a red toy car in his hands and gave the toy to her. She moved her attention from the soup she was making and bent next to her son.

"What is it Nao?" Angela asked taking the toy. The soup would burn if she didn't return to it soon, but she decided to spend a short moment with her son.

Especially now when her husband wasn't here even when it was weekend and he had no work to do.

Naoise didn't say anything, he was a quiet child, but stared at his mother with his green eyes that were so like Angela's. The boy had also inherited his mother's hair, but he clearly had his father's face and Angela already knew Naoise would grow upto look like him.

She lifted the boy in her arms and took the kettle from the fire. She would soon return to her cooking, Seamus didn't like badly prepared food.

Angela walked into the small living room Naoise with her and sat on a sofa. They hada few luxuries in their home and Angela had counted that there was no way they could have afforded them with Seamus' small pay. She had no idea where the extra money came from and she didn't even want to know.

It already disturbed her enough.

"Where's daddy?" Naoise asked suddenly.

"He has gone out and will be back soon," Angela replied hoping that she'd known the right answer. Seamus was much away from home nowadays and it worried her. The man seemed so strange and distant and Angela was certain he was keeping something from her.

"When?"

"I don't know. Soon."

Naoise was silent for a while thinking about something. He frowned slightly and look really cute in thought.

"I wanna play with him," he announced then and Angela laughed.

"I see. You have to say that to him when he comes home. But now I will have to prepare food or we will all starve," she said placing her son on the floor. Naoise would soon turn three, but many had mistaken and thought he was almost four.

Suddenly the door banged and Angela heard familiar steps.

"Seamus," she said when Seamus Finn stepped in the room. The man walked to his son and lifted him up. Naoise laughed.

"Where were you?" Angela asked.

"Nowhere. Outside," Seamus replied. Angela didn't miss how the man avoided her eyes as if he was ashamed and it made her feel more nervous.

It was a stupid thought, but maybe Seamus had another woman?

"You are much away nowadays. I am nervous when I don't know what is going on," Angela said.

"Don't worry, everything is all right. Let me take care of it," her husband assured. He ruffled Naoise's hair and the boy laughed again. He was too small to understand how serious his parents' conversation was.

"I wish I could believe that," Angela said with a sigh.

"I love you. Isn't that enough?" Seamus asked.

Angela smiled.

"Of course it is," she said, but in her heart she wasn't certain. Not at all.

**To be continued...**


	4. Chapter 4

JCA is not mine. Is this really necessary? It is? Geez...

**POSSIBLY POSSIBLE **

**Chapter 4**

__

Augustus Black lifted his eyes from the comic book he was reading and frowned. He couldn't quite hear the words that were spoken by his parents in the other room, but he thought he wouldunderstand some if he really concentrated.

"Are you sure, Angela?" he heard his father ask. He didn't hear his mother say anything, so he thought she had just nodded or shaken her head.

"Oh Thomas, I don't know what to do!" Angela Black said and from mother's voice Augustus heard she was holding back tears. He frowned again and a worried expression appeared in his green eyes.

What was wrong? Why was mother crying?

He jumped down from his bed and crept closer as quietly as he could. It wasn't very difficult, he knew how to be careful and the soft carpet on the floor killed all sounds.

"Don't worry Ang, old Briggs knows what to do," Thomas Black assured just as Augustus appeared on the door. He watched as his parents hugged and quickly withdrew so that they wouldn't see him.

Angela sniffed. "But can he do it? Seamus is so stubborn and he has changed so much. It's all my fault, if I had been more careful, loved him more or done something he would have never- " she started to, but Thomas told her to stop.

"Don't say that, nothing was your fault. Seamus deserves all he gets," he said.

"But what about Naoise? Why does he have to suffer because of his father's mistakes?"

Augustus blinked. Naoise? It had to be the boy mother talked about at times. It didn't happen very often and Augustus was glad, mentioning the boy made mother look so sad. That was probably why she was crying now.

Thomas sighed. He was a tall and a bit angry looking man, but under that shell was a warm and gentle heart. Many other men would have demanded their wives to forget everything about their former marriages, but Thomas really wanted to get Naoise to live with them.

Sadly it wasn't possible as long as that cursed Jack Flick bribed judgesso that theywould never take the son away from his father.

Damn it! Angela shouldn't have togo through this.

"If I had taken better care of Nao he wouldn't have done that... I am a horrible parent!" Angela said finally giving up and burying her face against her husband's shoulder. Thomas rubbed her back and tried to make her calm down.

"Come, you better rest." he suggested and led Angela in the bedroom. Augustus peered into the room once he was sure his parents were gone. He was really curious to find out what was going on and see if he could help.

When he stepped in the room he immediately noticed an open letter on the table. Augustus knew it wasn't his business to touch it, but he was a young boy and couldn't help himself. Before he even thought about it he held the envelope in his hands.

The first thing he noticed was that it had the postmark of New York and that it was sent to Angela Black. Who would write to his mother from there? Interested in learning more Augustus slipped his fingers in the envelope and drew out the letter...

"Augustus! What do you think you are doing?"

Father's strict voice made him flinch and he dropped the letter. He raised his gaze and realised that father looked both tired and disappointed.

"Nothing," he said quickly. Thomas sighed.

"Haven't I told you it's wrong to touch other people's property without a permission?" he asked picking up the letter and slipping it into his pocket.

Augustus nodded.

"Yes," he said and was ashamed. He never liked it when father scolded him.

It was strange to notice what kind of thoughts crossed your mind when you were busy.

Black sighed and gave up the idea of concentrating on Jay Flick and all this that demanded his attention. He preferred thinking about his brother and parents.

He remembered well that time when he had been so closeto reading one of his mother's letters. Some Briggs had sent them from New York all the time and mother had neverlooked happy after reading them. Black didn't know what the letters were about, but he suspected they had something to do with Angela Black's former marriage.

That was why he had told Bennett to start from New York.

* * *

Uh, how disgusting this place was!

Bennett looked around on the street that was surrounded by falling buildings and hoped that he wouldn't have had to come here. He was a man of order and he liked tidyness. This trap covered by dirt offered him neither.

But what wouldn't he do for fame?

When he got Naoise and Black together on TV the whole America would learn to know his name and he'd finally get all the respect that he wanted.

He took another look at the piece of paper where he had written down the address. Getting it had been pretty hard, first he had had to find the judge who had taken care of the Finn case and then make him tell everything he knew. He had been old and corrupted, the ideal victim for bribing.

Losing a good amount of money bothered him a bit, but at least he now knew where Naoise had lived as a child. That was a good start and Bennett was feeling positive.

He stopped on the street when he arrived at the right house and he gave the building a glance. It was dirty and old and he thought it was unlikely for someone who still respected himself to live in it. On the other hand, the people here probably respected nothing so it was worth a try.

There was no sign of a doorbell so Bennett knocked sharply at the door. Then he took few steps back and waited.

Nothing happened.

He tried again, this time louder, but no one came. Damn, was this the end of it now?

"No one lives there," a young man's voice said and Bennett turned around. He found himself staring at a youngster who was dressed in rather clean clothes. He wore a brown jacket, black trousers and he looked perfectly worn out to be in that place.

"I see," Bennett stated. Then he shrugged. "Pity, I would have liked to meet the family that lived here. They were my friends," he said.

The youngster gave him a suspicious glance. "A family has never lived in that house. Only an angry old man and after him Seamus Finn with his son," he said. "You don't seem to be the kind of person to get along with them."

"What else can you tell me?"

"How much can you pay?"

Bennett didn't need to be told that it was easy to make a deal with this guy. He clearly welcomed money and he knew this would be cheaper than with the idiot judge. He drew his wallet from his pocket and took out few bills.

"How about this?" he asked. The youngster nodded pleased.

"What do you want to know?" he asked.

"What happened to those two Finns? Where is Naoise today?" Bennett asked.

"Why do you want to know that?"

"Do you want the money or not?"

The young man rolled his eyes and sighed. It wasn't common that someone came to ask about something that old, especially if it concerned anyone called Finn. Oh well, he had nothing against extra cash so he could probably tell what he knew and come up with the rest.

"The old Finn is dead, and his son... I don't know. If my uncle was still alive you could have asked from him," he replied.

"Your uncle?" Bennett repeated.

"Yeah, good ol' Gregory Briggs. That old fox could tell you many things, but I'm just his nephew and don't know much," Briggs Jr. said.

"How much more do you want?" Bennett asked.

"How much do you have?"

They spent a small moment discussing the final price and then Briggs Jr. was ready tell all he had ever heard about the Finns.

"Seamus' son left New York soon after his father died. It wasn't a surprise, no one liked old mister Finn and it was a relief that he died. I was just five when it happened. And if you know what sort of business he was involved with you understand that it was a miracle he lived that long," Briggs Jr. lectured counting the bills. He put them neatly into his pocket.

"Do you know where Naoise left?" Bennett asked.

"No, but it was in west. San something, if I remember correctly. If you really are his friend, I don't think it is a good idea to find him."

"What do you mean?"

"Let's just say he is not that different from his father."

* * *

__

Finn said goodbye to his friends and decided to head back home before father noticed anything. He didn't want him to ever find out what was going on. If Seamus Finn even suspected something he'd get beaten up.

But who was his father to tell him what to do? Finn knew better than well that this was his only chanceof becoming something and he wasn't going to let anything destroy his plans. As long as he had his friends and a straight route nothing else mattered.

"Ah, good day Naoise. Going home?"

Finn stopped when he heard and old, but still cheerful voice, and turned around.

"Good day mister Briggs. Yeah, I'm on my way home. I better be there before father wakes up," he said.

The old man nodded. "Yes, yes, I understand. But where have you been?" he asked.

"Pretty much nowhere. Just wandering around," Finn replied slightly nervously. He liked the old Briggs and didn't want him to know what he was up to. It felt as if he'd betray the old man who was one of the few that were polite towards him.

Briggs sighed.

"I see," he said and something in his voice told Finn that he already knew.

The old Briggs.

Finn had to smile when he remembered the old cheerful man who had lived right next to him when he had been a child. The man had been like a grandfather to him. He had never even seen his real ones. And he had really liked him too. The old Briggs was probably the only one he had truly cared about in New York.

And probably the only one who had taken care of him.

* * *

What the heck was wrong with Finn nowadays?

Chow would have been ready to give almost anything if someone just had told him the answer. He was worried about his friend and wanted to do something to help him. But how could he ever do that when he didn't know what was going on?

He kicked the street in annoyance as if it was its fault. Soon after Finn had gone out he had followed the example and decided to have a walk. With good luck he'd end up in the same placeas Finn and make him talk.

But apparently Finn wasn't here. Chow stopped when he noticed that the street he was following ended in a dead end. He frowned. Of course, just his luck. He turned around his intention being to return and start looking for Finn somewhere else, but then he realised he couldn't do it.

Three people blocked his way.

"Get out of my way," he said trying not to care how unfriendly those three looked like. Two of them were men and one a woman, and the woman was the one who looked the most terrifying.

The first of the men was tall and lanky man with dark hair. He was dressed in very ordinary clothes and nothing in his figure looked special. It were his eyes that made him horrible, there didn't seem to be a soul in them at all.

The other man was much shorter, he barely reached Chow's shoulders. He looked plump and he wore a coffee brown jacket that was tightly tiedon his waist. The man kept his hands in his pockets and stared at him with his blue eyes.

And then there was the woman. She was probably the most hideous female creature Chow had ever seen. She wasn't actually ugly, her body was okay and her face was framed by short brown hair. But there was something in her that whispered you that this woman had never treated anyone gently.

Chow didn't know what the three were doing here, but he was not going to find out.

The woman crossed her arms on her chest and glanced at the man next to her.

"Jacey, please don't tell me _this_ is one of Valmont's men," she said. Jacey nodded.

"I told you only Hak Foo is a fighter. These other three are just clowns," he replied.

"How fascinating," the second man, Benjamin, commented. He had a very strange reputation among the underworld, but only those who had met him could tell why. He kept smiling all the time and his childish face looked very cute until he started to work.

Chow didn't like this at all. The three could clearly make a connection between him and the Dark Hand and though it was unlikely that they worked for police he didn't want them to catch him.

"What do you want?" he asked deciding to get to business. He easily freaked out and had many times told himself that you got rid of nasty things if you didn't try to avoid them.

"We have strict orders of what to do with you. Unfortunately it won't be nice," Barbara said.

"How fascinating," Benjamin said again. That was the other reason why he was thought to be weird. He pretty much never said anything else but those two words.

Chow frowned, he was starting to realise what was going on.

"You work for Jay Flick, right?" he asked. He remembered everything Valmont had told about Flick's gang and now when he looked at these three he understood it had all been true. Flick's group looked just as violent and cruel as he had thought.

Unfortunately.

Jacey laughed.

"True, maybe you are not as stupid as you are weak," he said.

"Enough of talking, men always talk too much," Barbara snapped. She really liked her job, hurting others was probably the only thing in the world that pleased her twisted mind.

"How fascinating."

The three started to near Chow and he had to back away until his back hit the wall. The alley was too small for him to escape past his hunters and he knew he wasn't strong enough to take them all.

Chow was starting to feel this wasn't going to be a nice afternoon.

Barbara delivered the first hit, just as Chow had guessed. The woman's whole figure screamed the word "impatient" and it felt in her attack. Her fist hit Chow in his chest and he was smashed against the wall. But he was ready to hit back, he wasn't helpless and was never going to just give up like an amateur.

Chow slipped his hand inside his jacket where he kept the only weapon he still had. Fooling around with Shendu had eaten the Dark Hand's bank accounts so well that Valmont hadn't had enough money to pay for them as much as he had used to, and his Enforces had been forced to sell some of their own property to survive.

He aimed a hit at Benjamin, the small man looked like the weakest of them. There was a quiet thud when it his the man's chest, but his smile didn't disappear.

"How fascinating," Benjamin said and for a moment Chow could only stare. Damn, he was sure even Chan couldn't have done that!

Unfortunately that small moment cost him much. Jacey grabbed his hand and before Chow knew it his weapon had been taken away. Now he had nothing to defend himself with and he glanced around.

No one and nothing to help him.

The next punch hit his face and broke his nose. He got that from Barbara too, it seemed like Jacey took care of talking, the woman beating up and Benjamin filled the production quota of freaks. Chow also realised that Barbara wouldn't just kill him - it was no doubt her intention - but she wanted to make it look as bad as possible.

And next would come either Finn or Ratso.

* * *

"But Uncle, the shop is not here!"

"Find better! Uncle remember the shop well and it exists!" Uncle's voice shouted from the mobile phone and Jackie had to move it away from his ear to not become deaf. He sighed.

"Fine Uncle, I will look for another moment," he promised and decided that this was the last time he agreed to do Uncle's shopping. It wouldn't have been that bad if you could buy chi ingredients from the nearest local shop, but the owners of magic shops had a nasty habit of hiding in shadows.

He usually found the shops Uncle demanded to see in one day, but now he thought he was going to have to give up. Uncle had sworn the shop was here, but Jackie hadn't caught a glimpse of it, not even an advertisement sign.

But the place was fitting for a small shop, the alley was small and everything was covered in dark shadows. The sounds of the city were distant and everything was very peaceful.

Jackie decided to search the end of the alley and if he didn't find the shop there he'd buy Uncle's ingredients somewhere else. After all, finding dried melons couldn't be too hard even without a magic shop.

He didn't quite like alleys like this, he thought they were too small and there was no room to defend if someone attacked you. Jade on the other hand did. Jackie was sure his niece would feel really homey in places like this. Where were shadows for hiding and room for creeping around, there was Jade.

Suddenly he stopped and frowned. Had he heard something?

Jackie wasn't sure, but he thought he had heard female laughter, a muffled shouts and - as strange as it sounded - the words "How fascinating".

What was going on?

Jackie was more curious than he wanted to admit and he found himself rushing closer to see what was happening. Part of him told him it could be dangerous, but the other half reminded him of that someone could be in danger.

The first thing he saw were three people who all stood their back at him. One of them was a woman, that he realised immediately, but that didn't make him any less suspicious. Especially when it turned out that the three were up to no good.

It took a small while before Jackie saw the bloodied man on the ground. Jackie sawhow he tried to cover his head with his hands and that was enough to make rage grow inside him. He was a very gentle man and nothing angered him more than hurting others for nothing.

Before he even knew it he jumped in the air and aimed a sharp kick at the taller man's back. The man shouted in surprise and pain, and his exclaim drew the attention of his companions. They forgot what they had been doing and concentrated on facing this new man.

"Who are you?" Barbara asked angrily and maybe she was a bit nervous inside her. She could see this man was a skilled fighter and she didn't like it at all. She, Jacey and Benjamin weren't fighters, they just could make things look bad when they were not in danger themselves.

"None of your business," Jackie said darkly. He didn't allow himself to glance at the victim on the ground, he knew that he'd lose some of his will to fight if he started to take a pity on someone.

"How fascinating," Benjamin said.

Barbara looked like she could have exploded at any moment.

"Grr, whoever you are, it would be the best to get lost! We'll smash you!" she threatened angrily. She had always hid her lack of skills with big words and had managed to scare many challengers away that way.

Unfortunately Jackie didn't scare away easily and he wasn't even interested in what those fools said. All he knew was that he had to drive them away and see if he could help the man they had been beating up.

Usually Jackie didn't like hitting women, but in this case he was willing to make an exception. Any woman who could hurt someone like that didn't deserve pity.

He kicked Jacey again and the man flewagainst the wall. He hit his head and the nasty knock made Jackie grimace.

"Hey! You can't do that!" Barbara exclaimed and charged at Jackie to give him a lesson. She wasn't interested in whether she was going to lose or not, she just wanted to show some things to that fool who dared to interrupt their work.

And they had seen so much trouble!

She got her answer in the form of a sharp kick and drew a surprised breath. It was long since someone had last hit her like that. It made her angrier and she tried to launch at Jackie again.

During this time Benjamin had done nothing, he just stood there and watched the scene a childish smile on his round face.

"How fascinating."

Barbara yelped when she flew next to Jacey cursing herself for never learning to fight. Jay Flick hadn't taken any of his fighters in San Francisco, only his best torturers. That was because he hadn't thought any of Valmont's men knew how to fight back.

"Let's go," she heard Jacey say and Barbara glanced at him in surprise.

"What about him? He is not dead yet," she said nodding at Chow. Jacey shook his head.

"But badly injured anyway. They have got the message. And we can kill the next one," he said. Then he stood up holding his side and helped Barbara up. She was an independent woman and never let men do anything for her, but Jacey was the only exception in her life.

"Come, Benjamin," Jacey said and the small man followed his companions with no sound. Jackie watched as they went letting himself relax. He wasn't going to go after them, he never chased anyone if they gave up. Besides, the victim of this needed him.

For the first time during this whole scene Jackie took a good look at the man. He yelped in surprise.

It was Chow!

The man's face and hair were covered in blood and it seemed like the three had really seen the trouble to make it all look really bad. His face was badly beaten and Jackie was sure at least one cheek bone was broken.

He swallowed and bent down next to the clearly unconscious man. He shook his shoulder not believing it was true, he was now part of a criminal showdown.

Chow whimpered quietly when Jackie tried to wake him, but he didn't say anything. Jackie sighed, stood up and took his mobile phone.

"Captain Black, I think we have a problem."

**To be continued...**


	5. EXTRA

No, I don't own anything.

**AN:** Okay, I was sitting in a car and listening to music when this thought came into my head. I thought it was wicked, so I am sharing it with you all now. Enjoy! But don't take this seriously...

**FINN'S FIRST WORD**

It was a warm summer evening in the small residence of the Finn family in Ireland. The sun was hidden behind dark clouds, promising a thunder storm and the air seemed to be still and unmoving. Not a single breeze of wind could be felt anywhere in the town of Killarney.

That didn't disturb Angela Finn though, she was happily reading a book on cooking while sitting in the living room. Everything was new and shiny. She, her husband and their little son Naoise had just moved in this new house and life seemed to be smiling at them. They even had their own TV, and Naoise liked watching foreign commercials.

"How is it going there?" Angela asked rather loudly not lifting her eyes from the book. Oh, how she yarned to try some dark bread!

"Well actually, Nao is just watching TV," her husband, Seamus, answered from another room.

"Typical. He always becomes so nice when it is someone else than me watching over him," Angela commented. She was enjoying her free evening, it was a rare occasion when Seamus didn't have work and could actually take care of their only child.

"Gah!" little Naoise said and kept his eyes locked in the TV screen. There was an old American film and though he didn't understand any of it he was really fascinated by the colours and voices. His father sat next to him trying to seem as interested as his son.

"I don't understand why you like these American shows this much. They aren't even that good," he muttered to himself.

"Gah! Gah!" Naoise said again as if he had actually understood what his father had meant. All he knew at the moment was that this man was familiar, safe and that he really liked him. And that was all his young mind could ever want.

Suddenly the phone rang.

"I'll take it!" Seamus promised and left the room quickly leaving Naoise alone. The boy wasn't disturbed by that though, the TV was too interesting.

"Come on dude, let's paint the town red!" a youngster with a motor bike said in the TV. Little Naoise watched. And listened.

"D-du-" he started. His father came back then.

"Who was it?" Angela's voice could be heard.

"A wrong number," Seamus replied. He glanced at his son who had crawled closer to the TV.

"Hey Nao, I don't think it is healthy to be that close to that thing," Seamus replied trying to pick his son up in his arms.

That's when it happened.

"D-dude," Naoise said.

"Oh my god! Naoise said his first word!" Seamus exclaimed in surprise and almost dropped the child. Within the next second Angela was in the room.

"What? He did? What did he say?" she asked excitedly.

Seamus frowned.

"I think it was 'dad'," he said in thought. Then he smiled. "I knew that would be your first word!"

"Hmhp. And I was hoping it would be 'mom'," Angela muttered.

"Dude," Naoise said again. He didn't know why, but repeating this word seemed to make everyone around him so excited. So why not say it over and over again?

"Dude."

**The End of this short extra thingy...**


	6. Chapter 5

Nothing is mine. That is enough, geez... If I owned JCA the demons would reign and several characters would be their slaves.

**POSSIBLY POSSIBLE **

**Chapter 5**

Valmont sat his hands on his desk and kept his eyes on his fingers. He didn't like what he had to do, but he was going to do it anyway. It was one of the darker sides of being a crime lord - both financially and emotionally. More financially though, at least in his opinion.

He lifted his gaze as three of his men - that's right, only three - stepped in his office. It wasn't the fine and luxurious office he had had in the good times and that was a pity. He had promised himself he would make Dark Hand into something again and get himself a proper HQ.

"We didn't find Chow anywhere, Big V. He is somewhere, but didn't know about this extra meeting," Finn said once he got in. "Actually none of us knew about it so it's a small miracle any of us is here," he added quieter.

Valmont frowned lightly.

"You don't have to tell me that, I already know it," he said.

"You do? So is Chow somewhere here?" Ratso asked glancing around himself.

"No," Valmont said.

None of his Enforces said anything, they all sensed there was a dark truth behind that one word. They stood and waited for Valmont to say something.

"Chow is gone," the Brit stated simply. For a while no one said anything, but then Finn - _what a surprise,_ Valmont thought dryly - decided to open his mouth.

"Gone? What do you mean gone?" he asked in surprise and shock. He had talked with Chow only few hours ago, what could have happened to him during that time? 

"It was his own fault. I told you to be careful now when Flick's men are on the loose," Valmont said sharply leaving the question unanswered. If you didn't know him better you might have thought he was trying to reassure himself of his own innocence.

Finn and Ratso felt as cold shivers went down their spines. Hak Foo didn't really care, he respected the three on some level, but had never made friends with them.

"So he is..." Ratso started leaving the sentence maliciously open.

"No he's not!" Finn snapped sharply. "Right?" he asked then pointing his words at Valmont. At that moment he didn't even remember his own problems and had he stopped to think he would have felt guilty because of that loosing a friend actually made things look a bit brighter.

"According to my sources Flick's forces surprised him and attacked him," Valmont said.

"Oh geez... " Finn said. That was all Valmont had to say, the Irish was intelligent enough to realise what was going on. Chow was... gone, just as Valmont had said.

And to think that he had been so nasty towards him. He had shielded himself from his friend's help. He had been so stupid!

"However," Valmont's voice broke the ice of silence, "Our old friend happened to be there and saved him," he said.

"Chan?" Ratso asked. His voice held relief mixed with confusion.

Valmont nodded. "Yes, him. If I am right Chow is somewhere in Section 13 at the very moment," he said.

"We have to get him out of there! What are we going to do, Big V?" Finn asked. He was sure that Valmont already had a brilliant plan ready and Chow would soon be free and with them.

"Nothing."

"What do you mean nothing? We have to do something!" Ratso said. He very rarely opposed Valmont, but when he did it he always had a good reason. Such as this.

Valmont shrugged.

"Because of Shendu's adventures the Dark Hand has no fortune. I might have enough to buy Chow out, but then we'd have nothing for out battle against Flick. Besides, it is very unlikely that anyone in Section 13 would want to do anything for us, even if we paid them," he said.

"Which means?" Finn asked with a bad hunch.

"Which means Chow can be replaced. He is not one of us anymore," Valmont said. He thought he knew his men well so he was very surprised when Finn slammed his fist on the desk.

"No. We can't leave Chow alone!" the Irish said in determination and his voice shook with anger. Valmont had never heard Finn talk like that and he frowned.

"Unfortunately I am the one who makes that decision," he said sharply.

"We shall see," Finn said his being full of rebellion and he marched out Ratso following him. Hak Foo glanced at Valmont, shrugged and followed the duo.

When he was alone Valmont had to sigh. Yup, sometimes he thought why had had ever become a crime lord. It would have been so much easier as a doctor.

* * *

Jay Flick stroked Darling's feathers and eyed his employees frowning.

"So, you didn't kill him?" he asked with a lifeless voice.

"We didn't have time, someone came and stopped us," Jacey replied. The three - or two actually, it was impossible to have an intelligent conversation with Benjamin - of them had decided that it was no use of trying to lie to Flick. That would just cause them trouble.

"Well, why didn't you kill him then?"

Jacey, Barbara and Benjamin glanced at each other.

"He was a better fighter and would have crushed us. Then there would be no one to take care of Valmont's other men," Barbara said. She rarely spoke, but now she thought she had to say something.

Flick slit his eyes. "What fools have I employed, Darling?" he asked his bird. Now his eyes were filled with love and tenderness that he would never feel towards any human.

"Chirp, chirp!"

"How fasc - " Benjamin started, but a glare from Flick made him shut up. Barbara slapped Benjamin, but the man didn't let out a sound.

"I know quite well that you are not fighters, but I still expect you to make it against a common human," Flick said.

"But that's it, he wasby no means common. He didn't even look like an American, but some freaking Chinese!" Jacey defended them. How could someone think they'd win against such a fighter?

"Chinese?" Flick repeated and now he seemed more interested than angry.

"That's right, Chinese. Or Japanese, or Korean or - " Jacey replied, but Barbara slapped him too.

"Chinese... It could be anyone, but..." Flick talked to himself. He fed Darling some seeds and the bird looked pleased.

Jay Flick thought. He had done research as much as possible before coming here and Section 13 had been one of his interests. That was natural, of course he'd find out everything that had something to do with that cursed Black.

So of course he knew about Black's best friend, Jackie Chan, who always interfered with the Dark Hand's business at the worst possible moment. He knew quite much of the man, but had hoped they'd never meet.

Oh well...

"If you see him again, don't even try to fight with him. Just shoot him," he decided. "And now, start to come up with what you will do to Valmont's other men."

* * *

Tap, tap, tap...

Harris tapped the table of his hotel room in thought and stared at the wall. He was a patient man, but this waiting really got to his nerves. Especially because his only company was his own thoughts.

His own deceiving thoughts.

He sighed. Had he done wrong after all? This didn't actually hurt anyone, so didn't he have the right to do it? He was in a high position after all.

That was what he had told himself this whole time, but a small part of his mind disagreed with him.

_No,_ it whispered to him, _someone is already hurt because of you. Only because you are so bitter anddesire a victory that is not yours._

Harris frowned. Stupid. Criminals didn't matter. Especially just one. Or two or thee. Only he and the law mattered.

But he knew that if Black or anyone else ever found out what he had done his career would be doomed. It made him feel uneasy, but he was going to be careful and not let himself slip.

No, not now when he was so close to his dream...

Damned Jay Flick!

* * *

"What do you think this means?" Jackie askedBlack. They stood in the hospital wing of Section 13 and watched the still unconscious Chow through a glass.

"I don't think. I know," Black replied.

"What do you mean?"

Black didn't say anything at first. He wasn't happy because of what had happened, but when he watched the hurt criminal he felt no compassion. What had happened was a fact, it didn't mean anything to him.

"I know who sent those three and what he is up to," he replied then. Jackie nodded, something was going on and he didn't know if he wanted to be a part of it. Maybe it was better if he didn't know anything about it.

But Black didn't let him to stay out of this. That was impossible, he had already saved Chow and attacked the three criminals.

"Jay Flick, a crime lord from Las Vegas has come to San Francisco and his intention is to destroy the Dark Hand. He wants to take the city as his own," Black said.

Jackie nodded towards the window. "And this is his way of doing it? Beating up Valmont's men?" he asked. He didn't understand this, wouldn't it be more effective to start an open war?

"Both the Dark Hand and Flick's gang are weak. My old superior Harris arrived from Las Vegas to tell me that Flick has escaped from prison and is here," Black frowned. "But I don't understand how a lunatic like Flick has been able to escape that prison... He can't do very much now and he just can't afford to do anything big."

"I see. So his strategy is to kill Valmont's men one by one until Valmont himself is the only one who remains," Jackie said. "Doesn't sound very nice."

"It isn't. I did some research and with your description I have managed to found out something about Flick's employees," Black said.

"Really? Who are they?" Jackie asked.

"The tall man is called Jacey Horrington and he is from Iowa. He started his career with simple robberies, but thanks to his cold-blooded nature he rose in the ranks and became a killer. He got a sentence for brutally murdering a little girl, but he has killed much more."

Jackie shook his head. "I hope the other two are not like that," he said.

"Barbara Klemmt is the woman you met. I have less information on her, but apparently she has always been involved with crimes too. She has never been in prison, so much is not known about her."

"And the small man?"

"Hmh, he's a strange one. I sent the description to my friend in Washington, but all he could say was that his name is Benjamin. I can't say anything else, not even if that is his real name."

"How fascinating."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Black was about to say something more, but then they both noticed as Chow moved in the other room.

"He must be awake," Jackie stated. Black nodded.

"I better have a few words with him," he said darkly.

"Do you want me to come?"

"No, I will handle this myself. You go home."

Jackie watched as his friend unlocked the door and stepped in. He knew Black was a gentle and friendly man, but only towards those he cared about. This was his job, so he didn't even for a while think Chow would be happy to meet Black.

No, because this was business and Black always took his job very seriously.

Jackie turned on his heels and walked away.

* * *

Chow's whole body ached and he didn't want to open his eyes. Part of him wanted to know where he was, but the other part was afraid of learning the truth. He didn't come up with anything that was bad enough to hurt him more, but it was a matter of principles.

Then he heard as someone opened a door and stepped in. Maybe he dared to see what was going on and then decide what to do.

He opened his eyes carefully...

Captain Black.

Chow closed his eyes again. Mixed feelings reigned inside him. He was alive and safe from Flick's gang, but he was also a prisoner. There was only one path for him now and he didn't want to end up in jail.

"I know you are awake," Black's strict voice said. Chow didn't reply, he wasn't in the mood to talk with Black. Especially since he knew the man only wanted to know how to find Valmont and others.

Chow knew Valmont would do nothing to help him, but he still didn't even think about betraying him. Despite his cold and selfish behaviour Valmont was a better leader than some people thought and didn't deserve to be betrayed.

"We can do this many ways. You can either answer my questions, or someone else's. I recommended to choose the first option," Black said.

"Shut up," Chow said. His head ached and he didn't quite trust his voice, but he still had to say at least something. He opened his eyes again and met Black gaze. He realised his orange glasses were gone - probably still on the street - and he saw everything in their real colour.

Black had green eyes.

Chow didn't remember had he ever seen Black without his glasses and if he had he most definitely hadn't paid any attention to his eyes. Now he saw them clearly and could only state that they were green.

Just like Finn's eyes.

"What are you staring at?" Black asked.

"Nothing," Chow replied. He most certainly wouldn't talk about his eyes to a man like Black. Actually, he wouldn't talk about eyes to any man. They would just get funny ideas, men were supposed to talk only about women's eyes.

Black nodded.

"Whatever. Now tell me what happened," he said.

"Isn't that, like, quite clear?" Chow asked. Bah, Black had to be very simple if he actually bothered to ask those questions.

"I just want to hear your side of the story."

Chow didn't reply and Black frowned.

"You should at least try to co-operate with me. You are here and can't get out, the only way for you to make it better is to do as I say. And if you care about your partners you will tell me all I want to know," he said sharply. His voice was hard and strict, there was no humour in it.

Chow snorted. It hurt, his broken nose didn't like it. "I won't fall for that, so don't even try it."

"Fine. If you won't tell me where the rest of the Dark Hand is we will never find them in time. Jay Flick will win and do them the same he did to you, most likely more. And then you will be alone," Black said.

"So you are trying to say that better in prison than dead?"

"Exactly."

"Hah. In that case you don't understand us."

"And I am grateful for that. I have no desire to understand criminals."

Neither said anything in while. Chow had decided he wouldn't tell them anything, no matter what. He, Finn, and Ratso had promised each other that if one got caught he wouldn't turnin the others.

They had also promised that if possible, the two others would free the third one.

In this case Chow hoped his friends wouldn't do anything. They had no chance of making it.

* * *

_The sound of breaking glass flashed through Finn's body and he flinched. It wasn't a flinch of disgust or fear, more like a flinch of pleasure. He had thrown the rock, because of him the window was broken and he was proud of it._

_The first step on his way to success._

_He and two boys, a little older than him, rushed on the move and one of them climbed in through the window. Splinters tore his jacket, but he didn't care. It was night, he couldn't have avoided them even if he had tried._

_"Hurry now! We should already be going!" Finn hurried and glanced around. There was no one to be seen, but he didn't want to take risks._

_Especially when the alarm was screaming and must have waken up the whole block._

_The boy who had climbed in, Bob, gave his partners two handfuls of jewellery and clocks. They stuffed them in small bags and then the trio was moving again. Their booty was nothing compared to what had been in the shop, but they were young and not greedy enough to endanger their freedom._

_They ran on the streets heading for the dirty part of the city where they would be safe. There they would be welcomed by a man who'd pay for them for this amateurish job. As long as they had nothing stolen they couldn't be blamed for anything._

_If they had chosen one of the fine and known shops of New York they would not have made it, but this small shop was at the edge of the city and the alarm system hadn't been replaced in many years._

_Finn glanced behind his back. He could still hear the wrenched scream of the alarm, but he wasn't afraid. He felt cold and calm and to his surprise he found himself enjoying the escape. Hadn't he known better he would have thought it was in his blood._

**To be continued...**


	7. Chapter 6

Dammit, I still own nothing.

Some language in this one, but nothing serious at all.

**POSSIBLY POSSIBLE **

**Chapter 6**

Balboa Park.

The park was not called "Heart of the city" for no reason, it was exactly as beautiful as every human heart should have been. Beautiful flowers and lovely trees made the park the dream of every soul, but there was much more too. The park was filled with museums, restaurants and all kinds of fascinating places.

Bennett sat in one of the many restaurants and stared at the map in his hands. The name of the restaurant was Galileo Café and though the food there was known to be good Bennett hadn't even tasted what he had ordered. He was in a bad mood.

"Damn," he mutteredto himself. When Briggs Jr. had told him that Naoise had movedto a city that started with "San" he had though it would be an easy mission to find him. How many cities could really have a name that began with those three letters?

First he had thought of San Francisco, but it had seemed too obvious, so now he was in San Diego.

Unfortunately he had realised the impossibility of his job when he had bought a map.

"How am I supposed to find him in the middle of all this Sans?" he asked from himself.

Bennett was a man from Washington and one of those people who didn't think intelligent life existed beyond their home city. Of course he had always known that Washington wasn't the whole world, but because he had always got all he needed there he hadn't bothered learning much from other places.

Now he regretted it because if he really had to visit all this countless Sans he would either die of old age or be broke before finding what he was looking for. Why couldn't that damned idiot remember the city any better?

His popularity was going downhill too. He had not been able to give the TV-people any decent reports and the audience didn't like him. His partners had done pretty well and Hooper even believed she'd find Chris at any moment. Heck, she even had a camera group with her all the time!

Oh well, there was still hope. An old friend of his lived in San Diego and he always knew everything that was going on. If Naoise had ever been in this city or done anything important in California Bobby would know it.

Bennett folded the map neatly and slipped it in his pocket. He and Bobby had agreed that they would meet in Galileo Café at noon and his friend should have come already.

"That crook is late again," Bennett muttered.

But he didn't have to wait for long anymore, he soon saw the familiar form of Bobby and gestured him closer. Bobby obeyed and sat at the opposite side of the table glancing around himself.

"They didn't follow me, did they?" he asked quietly.

Bennett shrugged. "How should I know?"

"Blast. They could be anywhere," Bobby said. He drew a deep breath and seemed to be collecting himself. He was a short man with light hair and beaver-like face. His nose was crooked as if someone had once broken it and he hadn't bothered to let it heal properly.

"I am not interested in what kind of problems you have now. I need your help," Bennett said. He didn't have to ask who Bobby was afraid of. He was always in trouble and someone was after his head.

"What do you want? I am busy," Bobby said.

"Too busy to do an old friend a favour?"

"Well, actually - "

"You still owe me the money I gave you last Christmas. And don't try anything, I know you didn't buy anything to your wife," Bennett snapped. Bobby raised his palms and sighed in defeat.

"Okay, okay. What do I have to do?"

Bennett licked his lips.

"Could you tell me where to find a person called Naoise Finn?"

"Naoise Finn?"

"Yes."

Neither said anything. Bobby tapped the table with his fingers and seemed to be lost in an imaginary world that only he saw. In truth he was going through the amazing list of names and faces he had somehow managed to gather in his head.

"Well?" Bennett asked impatiently. He really hoped that this would work or he would be in trouble.

Bobby shook his head. "I am sorry, I don't know him. I could ask around if someone else does," he said. "Why are you looking for him?"

"It doesn't matter," Bennett sighed, "Just keep running from your invisible enemies."

* * *

"We have to save Chow. Nothing else matters," Finn said to Ratso. They had returned tohis apartment and tried to come up with something, but it was no good. Finn was too mad for that Valmont hadn't wanted to do anything, for that this had happened and that Chow had been stupid enough to get in his mess.

No, he wasn't mad at Chow. Only at everyone else. Even himself.

"But how? We don't know where Section 13 is and they might have taken him somewhere else by now," Ratso said. Not that it mattered to him. He would do all Finn told him to.

The Irish sighed.

"I know, I know. But we have to do something," he said.

"Do you think they will give him a trial?" Ratso asked.

"Of course not. Black and Chan are not that nice."

"I thought they are the good guys."

"Depends on what side you are on yourself."

"That doesn't sound right."

Neither said anything now. Even the clock didn't tick on the wall, it had been broken for three months. The hands of the clock had stopped to point at forty past four and gave the face of the clock a very gloomy expression.

Finn tapped his fingers on the table and frowned. Usually he always knew what to do, but now he had no idea how they were going to survive. They, he and Ratso. It felt strange to think that now there was only two of them instead of four.

He, Ratso and Chow had been in the Dark Hand from the beginning and without them the syndicate wouldn't have grown to be what it was now. Without them Valmont wouldn't probably even bealive anymore because they were the ones who had been on his side during the Shendu incident. Finn could bet that no one else would have stayed with the possessed crime lord.

Yeah, everyone else would have made the right choice.

"So, what are we going to do?" Ratso asked. It was the third time he asked it within an hour and Finn still didn't know the answer.

Damn, he really needed Chow.

"I don't know. I really don't know," he muttered.

All of his problems seemed to revolve around Black nowadays. First the fate had a started a very nasty game with him and now this. Finn was against Black because of his principals, but this time he really hoped the man would have success and capture Flick and his gang.

_Hmh, I wonder if Black would let Chow go if I asked really nicely. After all, you should always help your brother,_ Finn thought in dark amusement. _Bah, he'd just be so shocked that he'd make the sentence even worse._

Suddenly the door was opened and Finn and Ratso turned to look. They didn't expect anyone and both thought Flick's men had found them now.

But it was not that, the one who came in was no one but Hak Foo.

"What are you doing here?" Finn asked rather suspiciously. They had never got along with Hak Foo as well as they probably should have and he wasn't sure of what the warrior wanted.

"I have business with you," Hak Foo said. He marched in and slammed the door shut behind him. Neither Finn nor Ratso objected, but the sudden arrival of the warrior confused them a great deal.

"What sort of business?"

"I want the Ox Talisman."

"Well, we all do actually, but what does it have to do with us? We have a bit different problems," Finn said.

Hak Foo's expression didn't chance, but his eyes told how stupid he thought Valmont's other men were.´"The talisman is in Section 13." he said shortly. Ratso's face brightened.

"Oh! And Chow's there too!" he said.

Finn gave Hak Foo a suspicious glance. They worked together, yes, but could he really trust the silent and gloomy warrior?

"So you are offering us your help?" he asked. He would have liked to ask if Hak Foo thought he couldn't do it alone, but didn't dare to. The man could get mad and leave and Finn couldn't afford to lose his possible support.

Hak Foo nodded.

"You get your partner, I get the Ox Talisman," he said.

"Great! Now that we have Hak Foo we can't lose!" Ratsosaid happily.

"If Chan doesn't show up and ruin everything," Finn pointed out.

"That will not happen. I know what we are going to do," Hak Foo announced.

"You do?" Finn asked in surprise. He had tried to come up with something the whole day and now Hak Foo just stepped in and told he had a plan. _So there _is _brain function under all that hair,_ he though to himself.

"I do. We will capture Black and force him to give us what we want. We can make him convinced. Chan won't try to rescue his friend if we threaten to kill him," the warrior said.

"Capture Black? Isn't that really difficult?" Ratso asked.

"Not if we do it the right way," Hak Foo said.

* * *

"So our next victim will be that idiot?" Barbara asked from Jacey who nodded.

"Yes. He is so stupid that won't even understand to fight back," he said.

"How fascinating."

"He is physically stronger than the last one, but this will still be an easy kill."

"Better so. Mister Flick was really mad when we failed."

"That won't happen again. I have taken care of everything," Jacey said.

"How?" Barbara wanted to know. She tilted her head and brushed her hair.

"This time we will choose the place and Chan or anyone else won't have any chances against us."

"How fascinating."

"Exactly."

* * *

"What are we going to do with him?" Jackie asked meaning Chow. He was with Black in Section 13 and they were walking around and talking about the situation.

"That is clear. If he refuses to sing to me he will sing to my superiors' interrogators," Black replied.

"Isn't that arather radical option? I mean, he just came here and is injured. Maybe we should give him some time."

Black shrugged. "Your opinion is very natural Jackie, but that is not the way this job is done. You can't be soft with criminals in any situation. Those guys know how to use every opportunity so we can't give in at any time."

"You are probably right," Jackie admitted. "Anything new from Flick?"

"Nothing. He must have hidden himself very well and let his men take care of everything. If he manages to destroy Valmont we will be facing a hard time," Black said.

"I agree. If all of Flick's men are as cold-blooded as the three I don't want to have anything to do with them. Especially if they are more talented."

"On the other hand this war is a positive thing. If we can play our cards right we might be able to catch both Valmont and Flick. Harrison will be pleased."

"That reminds me, what kind of person ishe actually?"

Black thought about it a while. "Very old fashioned, proud and stubborn, but a man you have to respect. He was my superior when I was younger and it was very much his doing that I was made the head of this Section."

"So we can trust him?"

"What do you mean?"

Jackie snorted quietly and felt embarrassed. "Nothing. I just have a hunch," he said. He knew he was being stupid when he suspected a man who Black respected. Especially since he hadn't even seen Harris himself.

Black didn't say anything. They kept walking.

"When will Chow leave?" Jackie asked then.

"If he doesn't tell us anything in four days I will send him to Washington. They know how to handle him and we will get all the information of the Dark Hand before we know it."

"I see."

"Or do you have something against it?"

"What? No, of course not! I just don't feel very comfortable when we talk about people - even criminals - like they were just animals," Jackie said.

"That is one of the things you must learn to accept in this job," Black said. Then he smiled. "But don't worry, just let me take care of this."

* * *

So they were going to capture Black.

Finn didn't know should he have been excited, afraid or feel nothing. Maybe the last option described him the best, most of him was completely numb.

Of course he had nothing against that they used Black in their plan. They were enemies and that would never change - at least if it depended on him. Black didn't even have to find out.

But still somewhere in his mind a very small thought asked what would happen when Black was in their hands. Would he be able to stand in front of the man as if nothing was wrong?

Of course he would.

Criminal life had taken care of that he knew how to hide his true feelings. It didn't show, he was always commenting and laughing at everything. If you had asked Ratso's opinion, for an example, he would have said that Finn was a very open person.

Maybe it was kind of like that. He showed people his positive feelings; happiness, laughter and excitement. Positive feelings were not dangerous, but you had to beware the negative ones. It was dangerous to reveal your sorrow and what hurt you. That was why he never let see those feelings anymore.

He had actually done that decision a long time ago.

Finn could still remember how he had almost got caught.

_What a magnificent feeling!_

_He was rich!_

_Finn kept his hand in his pocket and let his fingers caress the bills. They were his payment for the job he and his friends had done in the jewellery shop. It wasn't much, but to him and ones like him it was fantastic._

_And he had earned it on his own._

_His career had started now, a career that would make him rich, powerful and respected. He could leave this place and go somewhere where he was truly useful. And where he could make more money._

_Yup, he would become a crime lord. Or a very rich henchman of a crime lord._

_Of course father would not know before it was too late. Despite that Seamus Finn wasn't actually a model example - truth to be told, Finn didn't even know where he got hismoney - he would definitely not accept what his son was doing._

_Hah, like that even mattered._

_And talking about father..._

_"Naoise! What the hell have you done?"_

_Finn stopped on his tracks when he noticed father running at him his face red and looking angrier than ever before. It seemed like father was completely sober now, he never got mad if he was drunk._

_"What do you mean? I've just been around my pals," he replied._

_"Damn you have! You weren't at home the whole night and I know you didn't sleep at anyone else's either!" his father barked. He looked like he could explode at any moment, but Finn wasn't afraid. He had always cowered away when he had been much younger, but now he felt so confident that he wasn't about to move an inch._

_"Then where could I have been?" he asked calmly._

_His father drew a deep breath and strange, almost sad, expression appeared on his face._

_Seamus Finn was a very ordinary looking man and one could not have told he was from Ireland. His hair was more brown than red and his eyes were pale grey. He had been a strong and handsome man when he had moved to America, but years and the loss of his wife had treated him badly. Now he walked with a stoop and his face was marked by age. He had also lost most of his accent -partly by accident, mostly on purpose. Finn had never even had an accent, he had grown up in New York._

_"Gary's shop was robbed last night," Seamus Finn said quietly._

_Finn shrugged. __"So what? That happens often here and old Gary was asking for it," he said._

_At first Seamus couldn't say anything. He found himself staring at his son's green eyes and found his wife in them. Oh Angela... He loved the woman so much! Why had she left him?_

_He knew the reason better than well, but was not about to say it aloud. No, he had to blame someone else for it._

_Like Thomas Black._

_"You know quite well what I mean! If you think I will let you destroy your life like that you are sadly mistaken!" he snapped angrily and for the first time during the conversation Finn was starting to feel his father was serious after all._

_"But I have done nothing!" he defended himself._

_"Don't lie to me! I have clearly been too nice if you dare to behave like that!"_

_"Good morning Seamus. Naoise."_

_Both Finns flinched and turned around when they noticed that old Briggs had arrived. The old man smiled at the both of them and his eyes twinkled happily. He looked like nothing could be bothering him._

_"Go away. This is none of your business," Seamus snapped unfriendly._

_"What? What is going on?" Briggs asked with an innocent tone. Finn saw a knowing flash on the old man's face, but it was gone before his father noticed anything._

_"I am teaching my son what life really is about."_

_"In the middle of a street?"_

_"Better place than some others."_

_"And may I ask why?"_

_"I don't want to be rude, but that is none of your business!"_

_At this point Finn decided to take part in the conversation as well. This matter concerned him more than either of the men, after all._

_"Father believes I had something to do with the robbery at Gary's shop," he said. Briggs turned to look at him._

_"I see," he said._

_"Don't spread the family matters!" Seamus snapped angrily. What family? Finn wanted to ask, but he kept his jaw shut._

_"But Seamus, your son is innocent," Briggs pointed out. It was like a slap at Seamus' face._

_"What?" he asked._

_"Naoise was with me the whole night. I asked him to help me to organise my room and after that he was so tired that fell asleep on the couch," Briggs said. Seamus looked both very relieved and suspicious._

_"Really?" he asked._

_"What reason do I have to lie?"_

_Seamus nodded. He accepted the truth much faster than someone else might have, but that wasn't a miracle. Briggs' words were exactly the truth he wanted to hear and what helped him to forget his own situation._

_"Good," he growled and turned to walk away. He didn't even apologise that he had blamed his own son for a robbery._

_"Thanks," Finn said after his father was gone._

_"Don't. You didn't deserve to be saved. A beating might have made you get back to your senses, but my old heart couldn't let your father to do that," Briggs said. He didn't sound happy anymore, more like sad and angry._

_Finn didn't say anything. He followed his father's example and walked away angry because Briggs didn't understand._

_No one understood him. _

**To be continued...**


	8. Chapter 7

Nay, nay, nothing is mine. Period.

**POSSIBLY POSSIBLE **

**Chapter 7**

Finn tapped the table with his fingers. "So, we capture him once he is alone. It shouldn't be too difficult since he walks alone in the city as if he owns it," he said.

Hak Foo nodded. "All we need to do is to take him. After that we have all the cards," he admitted. The two of them had done most of the planning and Ratso had concentrated on making questions and nodding at times. He knew that he had no part in making the plans, but that didn't really bother him.

"And when will we do this?" he asked.

"Today. We have no time to play games," Finn replied. "Valmont will see that we can be much more than he thinks."

"That reminds me of that he won't be liking this," Ratso pointed out.

Finn snorted. "Hey, that's his problem. He didn't want to share our problem, so we don't have to be worried about what he thinks."

"Oh. I see."

Hak Foo hit his fist at the table. "Concentrate on this!" he told them and his two companions silenced immediately.

Finn shrugged. "Come on Hak, don't be so tight. Think about our bright future," he said and the warrior snorted.

"With you it won't be very bright," he muttered.

"Yeah right, what were you about to say before?" Finn asked reminding Hak Foo of that what was really important.

"Black visits the Chans often. When he is on his way there we will capture him. Not too close to the shop so that Chan won't appear. Then we'll bring him here," he said.

"Uh, I wonder if it's really a good idea to bring Black here. This is our only apartment and if he finds out where it is..." Ratso said, but Hak Foo glared at him.

"Exactly, it is the only thing we have," he said.

Finn raised a brow. "Since when were you the leader of this operation?" he asked.

"Since I realised that I am the only one of us who has brains," Hak Foo replied.

Ratso whistled. "Wow, did you hear that Finn? Hak Foo has said at least five whole sentences," he stated.

"Idiot," Hak Foo muttered.

"This is leading us nowhere. So we just wait until Black comes, knock him out and bring him here? Doesn't sound like a very working plan to me," Finn said.

"Do you remember we ever having a working plan?"

"Oh yeah."

* * *

Damn, damn, damn.

Bennett was still in San Diego and had tried his best at finding out some information about Naoise. Was the man even alive anymore? Until now he had had no luck, just like he had expected. No one in this city knew the name Naoise Finn and even if they did, they didn't say it to him.

He was starting to think he'd never get his story and become famous. Suddenly his cell phone started to ring and he dug it from his pocket. Maybe... "Yes?" he asked.

"Hey Bennett, I might have something that could interest you," Bobby's voice said at the other end.

"What? Have you remembered something?"

"No no, but I contacted a friend of mine and he seems to know quite a lot about Naoise and his father," Bobby said.

Bennett felt like he could have laughed like a maniac. "Really? Where can I meet him?" he asked.

"He lives in New York and you must travel there to meet him. He never leaves the city."

"New York? I have been there already. Do I really have to travel at the other side of the continent again?" Bennett asked. The frustrating fact didn't manage to ruin his good mood, but almost. He was fed up with the continuous travelling around. He really hoped he wouldn't have to continue to any "San-city" after his next visit to New York.

"Hey, this isn't my problem. If you are not interested..." Bobby said.

"No, wait. I am interested. Tell me his address and everything I need to know about him."

"Fine, but you'll have to lend me more money this Christmas. Wife needs new ear rings, you know."

* * *

A small figure crept at the corridors of Section 13 and glanced around. The figure knew she'd be in serious trouble if someone found her here, but it didn't stop her. It was the other way around, if someone was forbidden it was certain that Jade Chan would do it.

This time she thought she had a right to this. She couldn't believe that Jackie had caught one of the Dark Hand's men without her! It was unforgivable! They were a team, they were supposed to do everything together.

"Well, at least I'll get some out of this," Jade muttered at herself. She might not have been allowed to be part of Chow' arrest, but at least she could help themat interrogating. Jade knew Black hadn't got anything out of the man, but she was sure she could do it.

After all, how could there be something that Jade Chan couldn't do?

She walked quietly at the corridors and managed to get to the hospital wing with no difficulties. Someone might have thought that to be impossible or a very rare stroke of luck, but anyone who claimed that didn't know Jade. There just wasn't a place where she couldn't go.

Glancing around she drew a hair pin from her pocket and started to work on the lock. She knew she shouldn't have been doing it, but it didn't bother her. Jade wasn't actually evil or malicious, but she had a strong desire to help as much as possible. Others didn't seem to understand that so all she could do was to force them to accept her help.

It didn't take long before the lock let out a welcoming click and Jade pushed the door open. The hospital wing of Section 13 wasn't really meant for criminals so the locks were cheap and anyone could have got past them.

Jade looked around and closed the door without a sound. She didn't lock it, she made sure the door would stay unlocked as long as she wanted it to. She definitely didn't want to get accidentally locked up with a criminal. Jackie would ground her for at least two months if she was caught now.

She didn't have much time, Jackie was having a conversation with Black and had said that they would be leaving back to Uncle's shop soon. She would have to be very quick.

"Time to meet the bad guy," she said and crept next to Chow's bed. The man had guessed the girl was coming even before she had stepped in. Who else in this place would have to pick the lock in order to get in?

"So... how's it going? Are they treating you well?" Jade asked friendly and took a chair. She knew that Jackie would have a heart attack if he knew she was talking to a criminal like they were old friends.

"What do you want?" Chow asked. Chan's niece was strange, but he didn't think even she'd make friends with criminals just like that.

Jade shrugged. "Not much. A couple of things."

"Go away, kid."

"Huh? You don't want company? Isn't it boring to just lie here all alone?" Jade asked. She leaned against the bed and gave Chow a curious stare.

"I have enough company even without you. Get lost."

"Oh, I see. Black must be visiting you quite often, huh? Well, fortunately to you I am here. All you need to do is to tell me a few things and that's it," Jade suggested.

Chow stared at her. "You think I'm stupid?"

Jade smiled happily. "Of course not, so I suppose you know what is the best thing to do. Tell me where Valmont and the rest are and everything will be fine."

"From whose point of view? Yours when you can brag about how you managed to get all that information on your own?"

Jade smile almost broke. "Hehe, of course not. What do you thin I am?"

"A kid who shouldn't be sticking her nose into everything."

"Aww, you are just as boring as Jackie. I thought criminals have a fun life."

Chow rolled his eyes and was glad for that Jade wasn't his niece. Jade was way too curious, loud and she never listened. The girl always did what she wanted, crept everywhere and managed to do everything she desired to.

Yup, she would be a perfect thief one day.

Chow pointed at his swollen face.

"You think this is fun?" he asked and hoped Jade would just go.

A thoughtful expression appeared on Jade's face and she seemed to be thinking about something. "But you are a real criminal. I meant ones like Viper who are good guys though they break the law at times," she said. Then she seemed to get an idea.

"Do you tickle?"

"What?"

"If you won't tell me everything I want I will tickle you to death. Black might not admit it, but tickling is the cruellest form of torture," Jade threatened. She enjoyed this game, she had to admit that. She knew Chow was a criminal and that the man wouldn't hesitate to hurt her if he got a chance, but here in Section 13 it didn't bother her.

"You know, I am having a hard time even without you. So just go nicely back to your uncle before I -- " Chow started, but Jade interrupted him.

"Jackie! Oh no, he must be looking for me by now!" she said and jumped from her chair. A quick glance to the clock told her that she had stayed much longer than she should have and Jade was sure that in few minutes everything would be over.

When Jackie realised she was nowhere to be seen he would definitely look for her there where she wasn't supposed to be. With good luck he'd check the Talisman vault first, but if Jackie came here before that...

"Gotta go! Bye!" Jade exclaimed and rushed out of the door. Chow shook his head to himself and was pleased for that the girl was gone. Then he realised something.

Jade had forgotten to lock the door again.

Not believing his luck Chow stepped out of the bed. His ribs hurt and a broken ankle tried to object, but he didn't care about either. This opportunity was too unbelievable to be wasted.

He limped at the door and tried it. It opened with ease.

"Sweet," he muttered in excitement to himself and took a look around. His clothes had been taken away, but he was sure he'd find something else to wear than a white night-gown. He hurried at the dresser and to his disappointment all he found was an orange prisoner's outfit, but it had to do. Chow promised himself that he'd get something much better immediately when he was free again.

He got dressed as fast as he could and disappeared in the corridor. Now he just had to hope that he'd find the way out of this place.

* * *

"You sure he's coming tonight?" Ratso asked with a yawn. They had been waiting for a good while now and Black was nowhere to be seen.

Hak Foo gave him an angry glare. "You don't have to be here, we don't need you," he said.

"But I wanna help Chow. And besides, I'm just as good as the rest of you."

"Then be quiet!"

"What if you both concentrated on this or Black can dance ballet past us without us noticing it," Finn stated. He felt surprisingly calm and he didn't actually even worry about meeting Black anymore. Everything would be fine and now that he was in his element - breaking the law - everything felt much easier.

It was actually ridiculous that the head of Section 13 could be caught this easily. He walked around the city with no guards as if he was an ordinary person and feared nothing. Either he was very self-confident or stupid. To them it didn't matter as long as they got him.

If he just bothered to appear.

It could take a while because the very day they had seen Chan on his way somewhere. It was possible that he had gone to meet Black and in that case their prey probably wouldn't visit the Chan's in a while. Or maybe he would, you never knew.

"This is boring," Ratso said. They were sitting in an old van that was parked next to the pavement and they watched the people passing by waiting for Black to arrive. They had been sitting there a few hours now and it was getting dark.

"Ah, I guess he's not coming today. Let's try again tomorrow, right Hak?" Finn suggested glancing at the warrior.

"A predator never gives up," was the only reply he got.

Finn sighed. "Whatever, dude."

They waited there for another couple of hours and darkness fell on the city. The street lights were lit some distance away and the whole street was almost dark. It suited their plans much better and the three really hoped Black would appear soon.

And he did. Though not alone.

Hak Foo opened the window a bit so that they were able to hear the quiet conversation between Black and Chan.

"I don't know if I have any time to come. I have so much work and Naoise's case... I am expecting Bennett to call at any minute," Black was heard to say.

"Come on. You'll always have time for a cup of tea and didn't you give Bennett your cell phone number?" Jackie replied.

"Tea with Uncle does sound promising," Black remarked dryly.

"Just like a night with paper work."

The two walked past them, but none of the three criminals moved. They knew better than well that as long as Chan was around they better not try anything. They had been waiting for hours, they could wait some more until Black came back.

Alone.

* * *

Despite that he didn't really like tea Black thought it was always so nice to visit Jackie. His relatives were so personal and there was a warm feeling in Uncle's shop. An atmosphere that Section 13 totally lacked. He wished he had a home and family like them too.

Well, those things could wait. Now he had to concentrate on his work and when that was over with he could think of something else. Besides, he didn't have to rush. Jackie wasn't married either.

It was a late night and only the street and neon lights lit his way. Black wasn't afraid, he always carried a gun and knew he was strong enough to beat one or two common thieves or maniacs. Or at least most of them, but that didn't worry him. Who would want to attack him anyway?

"Spider catches the prey!"

Black let out a surprised yelp as strong arms wrapped around his upper body and stopped him from moving. He tried to struggle free, but his capturer seemed to be much stronger than him.

A gun was pressed against his temple.

"No moving. I have all the reasons to shoot you," Finn said darkly and from the Irish man' voice Black could tell he was serious. He glared at the Dark Hand Enforcer and frowned.

"What do you want?'' he growled.

"We don't have the time for this. We gotta get out of here as soon as possible. Hak?" he said and lifted a brow at the big warrior, who nodded and started dragging Black towards the van. The head of Section 13 tried to fight back, but it was no use in his situation. He didn't try to shout, the gun Finn had was in good shape and definitely loaded.

Ratso and Finn climbed in the car before many moments had passed and they drove in the night. Everything had been ridiculously easy.

* * *

His group had failed miserably. Jay Flick didn't like failing, but this time he couldn't afford punishing anyone. But soon when he had got rid of Valmont and had revenge on that cursed Black.

"A beautiful day to kill, isn't it Darling?" he asked his pet bird who chirped an answer. It had learned to chirp every time its owner said something because when it did that it usually got bird seeds as a reward.

Flick tapped at his cheek in thought."Ratso," he said to himself and practically considered the man to be dead. It would take only few days until he was out of the way and then they would concentrate in the Enforcer who interested him the most.

Naoise Finn.

Flick hadn't thought he'd ever meet Seamus' son again.

_The seventeen-year-old Jay Flick stood next to his father in his office in New York and kept his head up proudly. His father, Jack Flick, was one of the most powerful crime lords in the city and Jay was absolutely going to continue in his father's steps. One day he would be rich and powerful too._

_It would happen in a couple of years, his father had promised to give him a small casino in Las Vegas once he was old enough to take care of the business._

_Oh, he couldn't wait!_

_His father snorted._

_"Watch carefully and learn how to deal with fools," Jack Flick said harshly and just a moment later the door to his office opened. A middle-aged man stepped in looking very worried._

_The older Flick leaned back in his chair. __"Ah, Seamus. What brings you here?" he asked. He rarely had any appointments with his workers, but he wanted to have fun at times too._

_"It's about my son," Seamus replied._

_"Young Naoise? He has grown into a fine young boy who can work soon," Jackie stated. _

_Seamus' expression darkened. __"No, he is not for a that kind of life," he said quickly._

_"What do you mean?"_

_"You know quite well, mister Flick. I know your men have offered Naoise and some of his friends one or two jobs around here. I don't know how many he has done and I don't want to know, but I want it to end."_

_"But Seamus, your son is only following your example. When he gets older you can work together and sell the merchandise -- " Jack started, but Seamus interrupted him not caring if it was rude or not._

_"No! I don't want my son to ruin his life with this. I will not allow him tomake the same mistake than I did," he said._

_Jack Flick nodded as if he had understood. __"Oh yes, your wife left you when she found out you were involved with me. But so what? I bribed the judge and got you an excellent lawyer and you were able to keep your son. I paid all that, so in a way he belongs to me," he said._

_Seamus licked his lips. __"That wasn't part of our plan," he said._

_"No, but I have the right to change it anytime I want. I may not do it though, it depends on how bored I am."_

_"You can do anything you want to me, but don't let Naoise get involved with this business. He could become something much better than me," Seamus said and was starting to sound desperate. Hewished he had never joined Jack Flick's group, but he had had no other choice._

_Oh, he only wished that Angela had understood..._

_Jack Flick chuckled and glanced at his son Jay._

_"But Seamus, my friend, don't honestly want your son to grow up like you? I thought that was the dream of all fathers," he said and Jay Flick stood straighter._

_Yes, he was the fulfilment of his father's dreams._

**To be continued...**


	9. Chapter 8

Yup, yup. Nothing is mine. Never will be and I'm happy with that.

**POSSIBLY POSSIBLE **

**Chapter 8**

Captain Black tried to struggle free from the ropes that tied him to a chair, but it was no use. He was in an apartment that was messy and dim, clearly a criminal hideout. It reminded him of some old film-noir movies he had used to watch as a kid. Expect that this was real and the criminals were more ridiculous.

"Let me guess," he said. "You want me to free your partner?"

"He's not stupid," Ratso stated. He sat on a sofa and kept an eye on Black. Hak Foo and Finn had dragged a table in the room and sat at it. Because of the extra furniture the room was very crowded, but it didn't really bother any of the men. They had other things to think about.

"No, but difficult," Finn turned towards Black. "We will let you go if you free Chow and give Hak the talisman he wants."

Black raised a brow.

"You really believe it's going to work like that? My disappearance won't go unnoticed and the whole Section 13 will look for me. San Francisco will be turned upside down and it's impossible for you to stay undiscovered," he said.

"Hey, you are not the one to make the threats!"

"Actually I am. It would be better if you just gave up so that my men don't have to rush in guns blazing," Black said.

Ratso glanced at Finn in worry. "What if he's right?" he asked.

Finn snorted in despise. "Bah. Merely barks. They are probably taught to speak nonsense."

Black didn't say anything, just smiledto himself. He was sure that Jackie or Tag or someone would come to help him if he hadn't managed to escape by that time. How hard could it be? Those three were all idiots and would screw up sooner or later.

It was funny how much excitement he had in his life at the moment. First he had got enough courage to start looking for Naoise and now this. Black didn't think this was very serious. Despite its reputation Dark Hand wasn't what it had used to be and they would be no trouble.

Jay Flick with his group was a much more serious threat and he'd have to concentrate on them once this was over.

And then there was Bennett. Black had to admit that he was disappointed with the man. He had expected to get results soon and meet his brother in a week or so, but Bennett had done nothing. Black didn't know what he would do if the whole thing turned out to be a flop and he never found out where Naoise was and what he's life was like.

Finn frowned at him. "Don't mess with us. This is not a game and if we don't get what we want you'll get it," he warned.

Black snorted. "What are you going to do?" he asked in amuse.

Finn licked his lips. "I may not look like a body builder, but Hak Foo here really wants the talisman. If you don't get it for him he might get mad and that's not very beautiful," he said trying to sound as tough as possible.

"Yeah. Do you remember how he broke our table when you -- " Ratso started, but Finn silenced him with one glance. He wanted to keep the atmosphere dangerous and Ratso's side comments weren't good for that.

"So remember. We'll let you think about it a while," the Irish man finished.

"Shouldn't someone stay and keep an eye on him?" Ratso asked. They all glanced at each other. Finally Finn sighed.

"All right, I'll do it. But then it's someone else's turn," he said.

* * *

How many damned corridors did this place have?

Chow glanced nervously around and thanked his luck for that no one had seen him yet. He thought it was a miracle, what kind of security system did they have in Section 13? Had they no guards at all?

"Hah, when Finn hears about this..." he muttered. Then he heard steps ahead of him and froze. They were the steps of one person and usually he wouldn't have hesitated attacking him, but now he was injured. Broken ribs and a twisted ankle were not very useful in a fight. No, he had to come up with something else.

A man dressed in a neat suit appeared behind the corner and gave him a surprised glance. Chow suspected it was pretty much because of his beaten face and the fact that he wore an orange outfit. They were probably not very popular around here.

"Laundry service," he said quickly and the expression of suspicion disappeared from the man's face. He even smiled a bit.

"Oh, okay," he said and continued on his way. Chow didn't stay there thanking his luck, but hurried up. He'd have to get out and soon! But how would he do it when every place was full of doors that opened into new corridors? At which point would he pick the wrong one and end up in the agents' arms?

He passed another door. It was finer and somehow more magnificent than the others and he hoped it would take him closer to the exit. It was slightly open as if no one had bothered to close it properly and Chow pushed it carefully open. He sighed in disappointment.

The door didn't lead out, but into an empty office. He was about to close the door and keep going, but then a map on the desk caught his attention. The owner's name was written on it with neat blue handwriting.

"Augustus Black," Chow read aloud and stepped into the room. He knew the wisest thing to do was to get lost, but this opportunity was too tempting. He'd probably never again have the chance of reading Black's personal notes so he decided to enjoy it as long as it lasted.

He walked behind the man's desk and hoped that Black hadn't locked his drawers. It would have been the wise thing to do, but the good guys had a childish habit of trusting each other. Chow doubted Black was afraid of anyone breaking into his room that was so well protected by the walls of Section 13. Chow noticed he had been right, the first drawer opened easily and with no sound. He grinned to himself and then grimaced as his injured face objected.

The drawer was mostly full of papers and Chow didn't have the patience to read them. He glanced at the first one and after seeing that it was about some arrest about a month ago he decided that it didn't interest him. On the other side of the paper was an unfinished drawing of something.

"Rubbish," he muttered and closed the drawer. He found a dirty coffee mug with "Black but never Slack!" writing from the second one. He thought the mug just proved that its owner had no taste and after checking the empty match box and questionable magazines he had found he closed the second drawer too. It seemed like Black had nothing important in his office. That was probably why it hadn't been locked.

He decided to go through one more drawer before getting lost. He had to find a souvenir to make Finn and Ratso believe that he had been in their enemy's office, after all.

The next drawer was empty. Or so Chow first thought. He was about to close it, but then he saw an old photo in the back of it. He recognised it to be the same one that they had seen in TV and he took it. While watching television he hadn't really paid any attention to it because he and Ratso had been so busy insulting Black.

Now he had more time to observe it and he frowned in thought. The woman and the small boy in her arms looked kinda familiar. He wondered if he had ever seen them. The picture was light, but their green eyes and red hair were clear.

"Black's mother must be from Ireland. Just like Finn," he said to himself and remembered how he had immediately contacted Black's eyes with his friend's ones. Chow took another look at the picture.

"Funny," he said. He didn't really care about the child's eyes, everyone changed when they matured, but the woman's eyes were interesting. They were familiar, he had seen them many times though he had never met the woman herself. They were the eyes of Finn and Black.

He chuckled at himself. "Imagining things again," he muttered. It was very ridiculous to jump into conclusions just because of one picture. All Irish people probably looked the same. He glanced at the back of the picture. The words "Angela and Naoise" were written behind it. Chow shook his head and put the picture in his pocket.

It was time to go.

* * *

"Prisoner 202 has escaped!"

All agents who were in Section 13 that night froze. It was a rare occasion that someone managed to escape Section 13 and every time it happened they had to hurry. Most of the agents didn't even know who prisoner 202 was, but they were still doing everything they could. It was unlikely for the prisoner to be able to get outside the section, but there was no time to waste. If someone was intelligent enough to escape no one knew what he could come up with.

"Where the heck is Black?" Tag asked himself. Usually his superior and friend was the first one to know about things and he found it strange that Black just wasn't there.

Tag had just returned from a mission in Mexico and he wasn't actually on duty. He had just decided to stop by to say hello to Black and chat with some other agents. Terris had told him that Black had gone to meet Jackie earlier the night, but he should have returned already. Tag knew that Black was never gone this long without a good reason.

He shrugged and glanced at Terris. "So I don't get a night off after all," he stated. Terris snorted and didn't smile. He never smiled. And he rarely talked.

"Let's go and find that escapee. Black can then marvel at us when he comes back," Tag continued. The two left to follow the other agents.

* * *

Finn sat on the sofa and crossed his legs. Ratso and Hak Foo had left, but he wasn't actually worried about it. Hak Foo was always gone and Ratso wouldn't be away for long. He'd just get something to eat in the near by bar.

"There is no way you can pull this off. What kind of idiot is Valmont?" Black asked.

"Shut up."

"So you can't handle the truth? Typical criminal behaviour."

"I told you to shut up! I have a gun."

"So? You can't shoot me or you'll lose your merchandise."

Finn wasn't on the mood to argue with an idiot. _So like little brothers to always talk back,_ he thought in frustration. He leaned back and stared at the ceiling. It was not very interesting so he tried to come up with something else to do. For some reason he felt really ridiculous. They'd never get Black to co-operate if they didn't take strong actions and use violence. And for some reason they had done nothing.

What kind of fools were they? And where was Hak Foo when you needed him?

He turned his eyes back to Black and noticed his face interested him more than before. He started to look for similarities in them and couldn't say how disappointed he was when he found them. Their eyes for an example, they had both inherited the green eyes of their mother. And Black's eyebrows revealed that if he had had hair it would have been as red as Finn's.

Other than that their faces were very different. Finn looked much more Irish and Black had inherited his looks from his American father.

"What are you staring at?" Black asked.

Finn was startled. "Huh? Nothing."

"Whatever. I just want to make clear that I don't like you. "

"Well that I know already," Finn stated. He frowned. Of course he couldn't be sure, but he thought Black was behaving oddly. He didn't know Black well enough to be sure, but... Nah...

Black snorted. He couldn't even say how much he hated Valmont and his men. He had never found out why it was Valmont that made him boil,not some other criminal. Not even those who were more violent and dangerous annoyed him that much. Something in Valmont just was so irritating and he had started to feel the same about all of his men.

"It is very strange that Valmont has taken a risk like this just to save one of his Enforces and get the Ox talisman. You can always get more men and the Ox is not the strongest of the talismans," Black stated. Finn knew he was just trying to get more information to use it against them.

"Uhhuh," he said.

* * *

Chow had also heard what the agents had and it had made him really nervous. He knew he got often nervous for no reason, but this time it was all too serious. The chances of escaping were not very good now that everyone in Section 13 was after him. Black would get really mad and Chow didn't really like that idea.

"I am in trouble now," he said to himself. Why had he gone to Black's office? If he hadn't done that he might have had enough to escape before this. Oh well, there was no time for self-pity now, he'd just have to find his way through the agents.

He failed soon after that decision and a strong arm slammed him against the wall.

"Not another step, crook."

* * *

The night didn't last forever even in San Francisco. It was not yet over either and the dim light hovered over the city and air was cold. Jackie didn't know anything about it, he was still asleep in his warm bed. He was not allowed to enjoy that very long though.

He woke up with a flinch as his cell phone started ringing loudly and he tried to find it without opening his eyes. First he hit a half empty glass and knocked it on the floor, but the then he got what he was looking for.

"Yes?" he asked suppressing a yawn and wondering who would call him so early in the morning.

"Jackie, where is Black?" Tag's familiar voice asked in the other end.

"What? Why do you ask me?"

"According to our information he never returned from his visit to you."

Jackie was fully awake now. "What? What happened?" he asked and tried to dress up. He had the habit of placing his clothes on a chair before going to sleep so he found them immediately.

"We don't know. That's why I called to you because I'd like to know if you are any wiser than us," Tag replied.

"Oh."

"We have no time to lose. Black has never done this so something must have happened. You must come to Section 13 and we'll have to think about the situation."

"Yes, I'll come as fast as I can," Jackie promised. He finished dressing up and crept the stairs down. It was still so early that Jade was happily asleep. Uncle was already up, but had withdrawn to his library to read and drink tea so Jackie met no one on his way out. He almost ran the way to the phone booth that was one of the secret passageways to Section 13. Tag was there to greet him.

"Good that you came this fast," the agent said.

"What did you mean in the phone?" Jackie asked.

"Just what I said. Black is gone and no one knows where he is."

"But..." Jackie didn't know how to continue. Black had been perfectly fine when he had left so something must have happened to him on his way back to Section 13.

"Any clues?" he asked. Tag shook his head.

"None. The whole section has been quiet if we leave out the prisoner 202 incident. He managed to escape, but we caught him soon."

"Prisoner 202?"

"Chow."

Jackie blinked.

"He escaped? How?" he asked. Chow wasn't stupid, but he had never thought of him as someone highly talented. How did he even manage to get the door open?

"We'd like to know that too. The lock was picked fromthe outside, so someone must have opened it for him. It is dangerous to even consider that we have a traitor here, but we can't pass that option," Tag said. "But thankfully we caught him and locked him up again. Now he won't be able to escape and we can concentrate on the Black case."

"Do you think Flick's gang has something to do with this?" Jackie asked. Tag looked slightly confused.

"Flick? Isn't he in prison? And his territory is in Las Vegas," he said.

"It's obvious that you have been gonefor the last two months if you haven't heard the news. Jay Flick has escaped and come to San Francisco on order to overthrow Valmont," a new voice said and Jackie and Tag turned around to see the man. Jackie didn't know him, but Tag frowned.

"Harris. What are you doing here?" he asked. The leader of Section 4 snorted and looked smug.

"I was informed of Black and since I am the highest officer available at the moment Section 13 is in my control until Black returns," he said. Tag looked like the announcement was one of the worst possible.

"I see," he said.

Harris turned his eyes to Jackie. "I don't think we have met," he said. Jackie offered his hand and Harris took it.

"We haven't. I am Jackie Chan, Black's friend."

"Do you always discuss the matters of this section with civilians?" Harris asked from Tag.

"Jackie is not a civilian, but has worked with us many times," the agent replied. He was pleased when he could tell Harris something he didn't already know. Harris on the other hand didn't look happy.

"Ah, I see. I expect you to do everything to find Black," he said, turned around and left. Jackie glanced after him and shrugged. So that was the man who had trained Black and who his friend respected so much...

Tag shook his head.

"What a coincidence," he muttered.

"What?"

"That Harris is here at the same time than Flick. And Black happens to disappear too," the agent said.

"Black said Harris came here to warn him of Flick."

"Well, why is he still here? Everything that happens in San Francisco belongs to Section 13 and he doesn't even have the right to interfere."

Jackie thought about it. "Maybe he just wants to help." he suggested.

"In a way, yes. Harris has been after Flick his whole career and now that he is free again I don't think our friend will allow someone else to arrest him again. He is here just to get Flick himself," Tag said.

"What do you mean 'again'?" Jackie asked.

"Flick has been caught only once in his life. It happened when Black was still in Section 4 in Las Vegas. They had just got enough proof to put Flick behind the bars, they just had to catch him first. Agents surrounded his manor and attacked. I don't know everything that happened, but Harris was injured and Black was the one who got Flick," Tag said. Jackie could guess the rest.

"And Harris didn't really like it?"

"No. Some even say that was the reason why Harris sent Black so San Francisco and that he has never forgiven how he stole Flick," Tag admitted.

"But is it really possible that something that old is involved in this?" Jackie asked in suspicion. Tag merely shrugged.

"I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised," he said.

**To be continued...**


	10. Chapter 9

I am very proud to say that I own as much as nothing.

**POSSIBLY POSSIBLE **

**Chapter 9**

Harris dialled the number and glanced around. No one was around and it didn't really surprise him. He had made sure that he was completely alone when making this call.

If someone ever found out that... He hated himself already.

"Flick? Are you there?" he asked when the phone was picked at the other end.

"Who else?" his nemesis' voice asked and Harris clenched his fists. Just hearing Flick talk was enough to make him mad.

"What have you done to Black? Didn't we agree that we'd both get a slice of him?" he asked. There was a silence at the other end of the line. Flick had never been good at hiding his surprise.

"I haven't even touched him!" he said.

"Don't lie to me, you dirty rat! You have ordered your men to capture him! Have you completely forgotten about our deal?" Harris asked. All these days he had tried to convince himself that he was doing the right thing. At least the right thing for his own good. In order to get what was rightfully his he had had to agree with that crook.

And arrange his escape...

"Harris, Harris, don't lose your temper. It is very unhealthy. Did you know that a bird's heart is so weak that it can't take much stress? I haven't done anything to Black, but I'd like to know what is going on," Flick said gently.

"If I knew I wouldn't have called you. I don't want to be involved with you more than is necessary."

"Haha. So like you. I have always been like that. But you know, for a little favour I could get my group to forget about Valmont's men and concentrate on finding Black. They are just as good as your agents," Flick suggested.

"What do you want me to do?" Harris asked reluctantly.

"Little birds told me that you have someone whose life should have been mine. Make sure that he won't wake up tomorrow and my forces are in your service."

"You want me to kill a guarded prisoner? Do you know how dangerous that is?"

"Just as dangerous as helping a guarded prisoner to escape. I think you should remember how much I know."

There was a click at the other end and Harris stood on his tracks a long while. Then he smashed the receiver against the table and drew a deep breath.

"Fine," he said. "I'll play along a while more, but then it's going to be my turn to act."

* * *

"Wouldn't a video camera be a better option? This is kinda old fashioned," Ratso pointed out.

Finn raised his eyes from the letter he was writing. "Ratso, we don't have a video camera," he said. "Besides, they would see who we are."

It hadn't been even 24 hours since they had captured Black, but they were sure that everyone in Section 13 knew that something had happened. Everyone had had enough time to speculate and start investigating. Now was their time to announce what had happened. Nothing too great, just a note with an explanation and their demands.

Finn placed the pen on the table and eyed his writing critically.

He glanced at Ratso. "Hey, what do you think of this? 'We have Black. Take Chow and the Ox talisman to the harbour, pier 18. No Chan'," he read aloud.

"I think it's good," Ratso said.

Black started to laugh. "It sounds like you took it from some kids' cartoon," he said.

Finn glared at him. "Always as amusing?" he asked.

"I could teach him to shut up," Hak Foo added. He had never been very patient and didn't like to just sit and wait. And the fact that Black had turned out to be a very annoying person didn't make him feel any better. Either Black commented everything they said in order to get them make a mistake or Chan had no taste in friends.

Finn shrugged. "Do it later. Right now I have something else for you to do," he said and slipped the letter into an envelope. "We don't know where Section 13 is, but they should get this when you leave it at Chan's door."

Hak Foo took the letter and nodded. "Pigeon delivers the message," he said. Then he left and Finn looked pleased.

"Everything has been going on well," he said. To be honest nothing had been going on for long, but why be pessimistic? They had had success before and most of their plans would have made them rich if some little detail hadn't gone wrong. This time that couldn't happen, they had been very careful and would take good care of their cards.

"Yeah, we haven't been caught yet," Ratso agreed.

"And we won't," Neither of them would have admitted it, but their pleasant conversation was just an act. It helped them to relax and forget the fact that they had one of the most important men of San Francisco in their hands. If they got caught the punishment would be hard.

But they wouldn't. Though this was dangerous nothing had gone wrong yet. And while they had not had any success before they had one advantage: they were fighting for their friend. Wasn't that important enough for them to make it?

* * *

Bennett was in New York again. He liked the city more than San Diego, but it was still frustrating to run around. He really hoped this would be his last visit in this city, at least for a while.

The connection Bobby had promised lived some distance from the centre of the city so he couldn't be a very poor fellow. Knowing his friend Bennett was certain of that the man hadn't got rich by legal ways, but that didn't really bother him. He'd just get more colourto his story and make more money.

"Hector D'Crita," he muttered to himself glancing at the address. He really hoped this trip would turn out to be useful. Hector didn't live on any big street so Bennett couldn't take the bus to his home door. Walking didn't take too long though and soon he was standing in the man's hallway.

Or actually in a room that was located where every normal person would have had a hallway. In Hector's case it was much more like a ballroom. There was even a stage for an orchestra and the room was so big that that there probably wasn't much else in the house.

"Excuse me?" Bennett asked. In the centre of the room stood a man dressed in a dark suit. He was smiling happily. He looked like he really wanted to hide his real age, but Bennett guessed him to be about sixty.

"Welcome. I am Hector," he said. Bennett no longer wondered how Bobby knew this guy. Freaks had the habit of teaming up.

"My name is Bennett. Bobby probably told about me," he said.

"Ah, of course. Bobby is certainly a fine gentleman when it comes to being in time," Hector said. Bennett completely ignored the comment. He didn't have patience for games.

"I came to ask about Naoise Finn. Bobby told me that you know quite a lot about him," he said.

Hector nodded. "Of course I do. Why not?"

"No one of those I've met this far knew much."

"Then they must not have been born in New York."

Bennett smiled. "Actually one of them was."

Hector stepped closer. His shoes made a sharp sound against the shining floor. "Why do you want to know about this man? And why should I tell you?" he asked.

"I have my reasons," Bennett replied and took a wallet from his pocket. A bored expression appeared on Hector's face.

"Money?" he asked. "I have that more than enough. Just answer my question and I'll see what I can do." Bennett didn't reply immediately. He had no reason to be suspicious -- everyone who watched TV knew what he was doing -- but it was an old habit from the times when he had been a real detective.

"Fine," he said, "I want to find him because he happens to be the lost brother of my client. I should arrange a happy family reunion, if you know what I mean."

The smile returned on Hector's lips. "Ah, I see. Doing that kind of job must be fun. At least in the movies. I could try it myself if it wasn't so hard. My clothes would get dirty too. I prefer dancing tango," he said.

Bennett glanced at the ballroom. "I believe that."

"I am honoured to help, but we shouldn't just stand here," Hector clapped his hands and soon a male servant appeared in the room. His face was completely expressionless and he stopped at a meter or two from his master.

"Rudolph, get us a table and wine. I suppose you drink wine?" Hector said and during the last words he turned to face Bennett again. He didn't wait for a reply though and send his servant away. Bennett was starting to feel more and more confused.

Rudolph returned after a while carrying a small table and he was followed by a young boy with two fine chairs, a bottle of wine and two glasses. They didn't say anything at all, but left as quietly as they had appeared.

Hector snorted. "I detest them. I don't really want to even look at them, but I wouldn't survive without them," he said. He gestured Bennett to sit and poured wine for the both of them.

"Could you tell me something now?" Bennett suggested trying his wine. It was too sweet for his liking and he didn't even like wine.

"Of course. Naoise Finn..." Hector sipped his wine. "Not a very interesting case. The usual story," he said.

"Please tell it to me," Bennett said slightly impatiently. What kind of slick idiot was that guy?

"With how many details?"

"Just tell it!"

"Well, this story began when the Finn family arrived to the US. Seamus and Angela were a happy couple and they had a small son, Naoise. They had left their home in the hope of a better life, but America wasn't what they had believed it to be. Seamus didn't get a job and they really needed money. Finally he had to -- in order to feed his family -- take part in a job or two. It was pretty much nothing, just drug dealing, but things like that have the habit of growing into something bigger," Hector said.

"Tell me more," Bennett suggested. He felt he was going to get the story he wanted.

"Once you are in it's very difficult to get out and to be honest, Seamus wasn't a very strong man. So he became a small timer and Angela found out. She couldn't understand why Seamus had done what he had and without even thinking about it she decided to leave him and take their son with her. I think Seamus panicked and went to see his boss Jack Flick. He promised that if Flick made sure of that Angela wouldn't take Naoise away he'd be in his service forever and do all the dangerous jobs that no one wanted. Flick agreed just to amuse himself and because it didn't cost too much. So Naoise stayed here when Angela left. The reporters Flick had bribed made her seem like an alcoholic and she was ashamed."

"What happened then?" Bennett asked. He hoped he had taken a note book with him to write all this down. If he forgot something important his story could lose something.

Hector shrugged. "Angela got married again and had another son, but I think you know more about him than I do. Angela and Seamus are dead, but Naoise is alive and lives elsewhere. I heard he had some luck and is part of a criminal organisation," Hector said.

"Where is he now?"

"In San Francisco."

"San Francisco? Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. I had to check some facts when Bobby called, but I never give wrong information," Hector said. He sounded hurt, as if someone had just hit him.

"How do you know this much? No one has given me this much information yet."

"It is not hard to find out things if you know who to ask. Besides, I saw most of that myself because I used to work with the Finns at times. You could almost call us old friends," Hector said.

"So you are a criminal. Admitting that doesn't seem to make you nervous you," Bennett said. Hector chuckled.

"Come on! Do you think you could do something even if you had evidence? I have so much power that it's simply impossible to get rid of me. Just ask Jay Flick if you don't believe me. I assume you'll soon be on your way to San Francisco and you might meet him there," he said.

"Do I owe you anything?" Bennett asked. He wanted to leave as soon as possible. To think of the irony, Naoise had been in San Francisco the whole time. Literally under Black's nose!

"No. Just tell me how the story ends. Maybe someone will come and ask me about it one day," Hector said and sipped his wine.

* * *

Jackie and Tag had thought about what was the best thing to do, but they had no chance of doing anything as long as Harris was in the lead.It looked like he was doing something, but Jackie had noticed that he had not done anything to find Black. He was starting to feel that Tag was right and it made him nervous.

"What if Harris is behind all this?" he asked.

"If that is true it is possible that we'll never find Black," Tag replied darkly.

Jackie stared at him in shock. "Harris wouldn't kill him, would he?"

"I don't know. The competition between Sections and their heads is much harder than you think. Assassination and secrets aren't very rare," the agent replied. It made Jackie feel even more gloomy.

"Hi Jackie," a cheerful voice said next to him.

"Jade!" Jackie exclaimed, but wasn't very surprised. "What are you doing here this time?"

Jade looked at him frowning and shrugged.

"There was an envelope with your name at the door. You weren't home and I though I could find you here so I brought the envelope to you." A hurt and worried expression appeared on her face. "Jackie-e, why didn't you tell me Captain Black is in trouble? I could have helped!"

"Jade, did you read the letter?" Jackie asked.

"Tch, I had to. If it had been something useless I wouldn't have bothered to bring it," the girl replied and handed the envelope to her uncle. He drew out a piece of paper and read it fast. Then he gave it to Tag who sighed in relief.

"At least he's still alive," he said.

"And it's also obvious who are behind this," Jackie added.

"Exactly, it's the Dark Hand. I have helped you to defeat them many times, so I guess you won't mind if I take part this time too, right?" Jade said. She gave the men the cutest look ever, but neither was ready to agree.

"It's probably useless to say this, but this adventure is not for you. Besides, shouldn't you be in school?" Jackie replied. Jade didn't say anything, just glared at her uncle. She thought Jackie should have been grateful for that she had even bothered to show up.

"Hey, I'm skipping classes for an important matter," she said.

"We can take care of this. You are going to school," Jackie said. He knew he needed a miracle to make Jade obey, but he wanted to try. Jade crossed her arms in front of herself and sighed.

"Fine, I'll go," she muttered, but -- like usually -- had another plan in mind.

Jackie and Tag watched as the girl walked away and once they were sure of that she really had left the room they dared to talk. Tag ran his fingers through his hair.

"And I thought Harris was behind this," he said.

"I don't think anyone can blame you for that. Knowing the Flick case it was easy to think he was guilty," Jackie replied. He was relieved for that their enemy was no one else than the Dark Hand. He knew them and how to fight with them. "They want us to free their partner and give them one of the talismans."

"Why only one? If I was with them I'd take all of them," Tag said.

"Maybe they think we'll agree if their demands are reasonable," Jackie suggested.

"Could be, but they are stupid if they think we'll do this. We can't free prisoners, at least without Harris' approval. And getting the highly guarded talismans is even more difficult."

"And we may have another way of getting Black back too. They have to keep him somewhere in San Francisco so we might find them. How many hideouts does the Dark Hand have anyway?" Jackie said.

"I don't know, but Harris will have to send agents to search Black," Tag said.

"Where is Harris, by the way?"

* * *

"So they want Chow and the Ox talisman," Jade said to herself while wandering at the corridors of Section 13. She had no intention of going to school now that something this serious was going on -- Black was her friend too.

She wasn't stupid and her previous adventures had made her lose some of the naive nature of a child and she knew that if she let adults take care of this Black would probably never come back. Section 13 was filled with old squares who would never give away a prisoner and a talisman. They'd talk about law and rules, but forget what the situation was. Black was simply more important than anything else.

Jade wasn't sure what she would do. She wanted to march into the Talisman Vault, take what the criminals wanted and save Black, but her heart didn't like it. This time she wouldn't just borrow the talisman, but give it to their enemy. They might never see it again and she didn't want to think about all the bad things that could be done with it.

Suddenly she stopped when she heard steps behind her. It couldn't be Jackie or Tag and Jade didn't want anyone else to know that she was around. Some old idiot could kick her out and she'd have to sacrifice at least ten minutes in order to get back in.

She ran into a near by room and closed the door a bit so that she was able to see what was going on without anyone seeing her. And just in time too, only a couple of minutes later a man appeared behind the corner. He seemed to be in a hurry and he kept glancing behind himself as if he was afraid of someone seeing him.

Jade thought he was more than suspicious and once he had passed she returnedto the corridor and went after him. The man's destination wasn't far away -- he stopped at the same door where Jade's legs had been taking her. There was a guard at the door and to Jade's shock the man she had followed hit him in the back of his head.

The guard let out a small cry and fell on the floor. Jade realised her target had to be someone from inside Section 13 if it was that easy for him to surprise the guard. It got her even more suspicious and she watched in silence as the man stepped into the room. He didn't close the door properly, so it was easy for Jade to peer in and see what was going on.

The room was Chow's new cell and not even clearly as nice as the one in the hospital wing. Jade watched as the strange man took a rag from his pocket, charged at Chow and pressed the rag on his face suppressing his shout. It didn't take long before the criminal's body relaxed as he lost consciousness. What came next was what shocked Jade the most.

The man pressed his hand on Chow's face not allowing him to breathe. _He's trying to kill him!_ Jade realised and even before she knew what she was doing she had rushed in the room.

"Stop! If you think you can kill someone here you are wrong!" she snapped and Harris turned around in surprise and shock. He let Chow fall and the man's head hit the floor with a nasty sound.

"Who are you?" Harris asked. Jade stared at him frowning and believing that if she tried to do something right nothing could go wrong. She was also so angry that couldn't think clearly. Maybe that was why she was so surprised when Harris caught her from her neck and forced her to breathe trough the rag too.

Jade tried to hold her breath but in the end her lungs were victorious and forced her to draw a breath. The rag smelled sweet and Jade felt drowsy. She managed to blink a few times before everything became black and she had no idea of what was going on around her.

Harris shook his head.

"Now you are in trouble, girl," he said. "I know someone who has killed little girls before and he won't hesitate this time either."

**To be continued...**


	11. Chapter 10

This is still just fan based amusement and no money is being made...

**POSSIBLY POSSIBLE **

**Chapter 10**

Harris looked at the two unconscious people -- a man and a girl -- and shook his head. Now things had got complicated and it was all Flick's fault. He had two hostages to take care of now and the chance of getting caught was also much greater.

The door opened and a man stepped in. He stared at the scene in confusion. "What is this? Didn't we just have to kill him and take his body away?" he asked.

Harris shrugged. "Change of plans, Ned. We have to get them out as soon as possible. Then we can kill them."

Ned nodded. He was a strong man who was becoming bald very fast and whose blue eyes reminded most people of mice. He was an agent from Section 4 and had come with Harris to help him.

"Let's hurry then," he said. He didn't know all of the details of this operation, but questioning Harris wasn't part of his job. And besides, he was pretty sure of that by doing this someone would replace Black soon.

And that was always a good goal.

He wasn't very young anymore, but was still a common field agent. Most of his peers had been resigned to higher missions and he didn't like it the least. He thought he had laboured enough for the Sections and yet they had never paid him any attention.

That would change. Harris had promised that he would give him a raise as soon as this was over. It was an offer Ned just couldn't have refused.

He didn't feel bad at all when he packed the unconscious duo into a small cart and covered them with a white sheet and laundry. If nothing unexpected happened it would be very easy to deliver the prisoners away to be killed.

"We can go now," he said and the two left. The guard Harris had knocked down was still unconscious and he was now lying in a pool of his own blood. The man wouldn't recover in time to blame them.

Everyone in Section 13 was busy and had neither time nor the desire to stop them. Especially since Harris -- Black's trusted teacher -- was there and talked with Ned like they were old friends.

Only one of the agents who they med stopped to look at them in confuse.

"Laundry service," Ned said before the other managed to ask anything.

"Oh. Our Section sure has started to get dirty," the man said and continued on his way. There was no change of expression on Harris and Ned's face, but they were both relieved. Only a while more and then the dangerous part would be over.

After they got out they headed for a truck that Ned had parked nearby. Everything was just as easy as they had expected and no one saw them. Harris climbed in the back with the still unconscious prisoners and Ned took the wheel.

Harris let out a sigh and leaned his head against the truck. He had done it. He really had.

They would soon notice that he was gone, but he knew that no one could start blaming him for something. Tag and Chan might try something, but those two really couldn't do anything as long as Black was gone.

And besides, rebellious agents often got into strange accidents...

He turned his thoughts to what he had to do now. Flick had promised to send his group to look for Black if he got Chow. Harris didn't quite trust the criminal's word, but it was good for both of them if Black was found and got what he deserved.

Everything had gone according to the plan, but there was just one slight exception

The girl.

Harris glanced at the unconscious form of Jade and for the first time during the operation he felt guilty. The girl had nothing to do with the mess, she wasn't a criminal and hadn't hurt Harris at all. She had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

That couldn't be helped now. The girl had seen too much and he had to get rid of her as soon as possible. Jacey could do that for him. The man's hands were already covered in the blood of young children.

* * *

The hideout of Jay Flick was actually much tidier than what Harris had been expecting, and yet a rat hole that he wasn't used to. It would have been easy to believe that Flick was hiding in some warehouse at the docks, but he had moved in an old pet shop. The shop had been empty for a while now and the owner probably had no idea of what his property was going trough.

Flick himself hadn't bothered to come to greet him, but had sent his gang to do it.

"How fascinating," Benjamin said as Harris stepped out. He glanced at the criminal. What a small freak...

"Shut up and help me to get the prisoners in," he said. Benjamin didn't even move, but Jacey was ready. He, Harris and Ned carried Chow and Jade in.

"Return to the Section and tell that I will be gone for a few days. Say that I travelled to Washington to ask for help," Harris said and Ned nodded.

"Clear."

The atmosphere inside was just as nasty as was to be expected. The first thing that Harris noticed was Jay Flick who sat in a fine arm chair caressing his pet bird. Anger and despise rose inside him, but he forced himself to calm down.

"I did what you wanted. Now help me," he said.

Flick glanced at him in curiosity and stood up. He walked to Chow and Jade and gave them a small kick.

"You brought me an extra prisoner and didn't kill the first one," he pointed out.

"I had some trouble. The girl appeared just when I was about to take care of the job and I had to bring them both. Do whatever you want with them," Harris replied. He eyed his nemesis, it was time since he had really seen him.

"What do you say Darling? Has Harris done well?" Flick asked the bird's opinion.

"Chirp chirp!" was the happy reply and Flick looked pleased.

"Fine," he said. "Jacey, lock them up and go to find Black."

"We think the Dark Hand has him," Harris remarked.

Jacey glanced at the prisoners in suspicion.

"Shouldn't we kill them now before it is too late?" he asked.

"I agree. Something unexpected can happen and it is good if we have got rid of at least two witnesses," Harris added.

Jay Flick frowned. "Are you trying to give me advice? Only my beloved Darling is good enough to do that!" he snapped.

"Chirp!"

Jacey and Harris glanced at each other.

"Right..." Harris said slowly. Huh, Flick was even moreof afreak than before. His place was in a round room, not prison.

* * *

Jay Flick didn't waste any time keeping his promise and in a while Jacey, Barbara and Benjamin were on the street again. They had had brilliant plans of capturing Ratso, but they hadn't tried any of them.

"This way we can save some time. Once we find the Dark Hand we get Black too," Barbara said.

"How fascinating."

Jacey shook his head.

"This operation has taken longer than it should have. And we haven't got paid either," he stated.

"Hey, that's true! Why didn't I realise that?" Barbara asked angrily. Jacey and Benjamin exchanged looks.

"Maybe Flick is fed up with that we haven't done anything, or..." Jacey started.

"Or what?" Barbara asked. She had joined this thing in order to get money and have some fun, but she had had neither.

"Or he can't afford to pay us. Think about the place we live in! And didn't we come here because the situation in Las Vegas is bad?" Jacey reasoned.

"That makes sense. Is he going to pay us at all?"

"I don't know, but he better should. We have served him loyally for years and it would be sad to see that change."

"Change?"

Jacey shrugged and snorted.

"It could be that if we don't get what we were promised the San Francisco take-over fails miserably. Just like Hay Flick himself."

Barbara smiled.

"Oh. Now I see."

"How fascinating."

"Really," Barbara said. Then she thought of something. "How do we find the Dark Hand? Do you know where their HQ is?"

"No. Flick gave us a difficult mission," Jacey admitted. "But that doesn't mean that we can't find them. Anyone will sell them for the right price."

"But we haven't got paid and Flick's pocket is also empty," Barbara pointed out.

"Who said we should pay them? It's enough if we promise not to kill them," Jacey replied.

"Works with me, but we also have to find someone who knows where they are."

"That shouldn't be too hard. They are the only functional crime organisation around here and everyone has to be involved with them."

"I meant that will we find anyone. Black has been busy and San Francisco is cleaner than some other cities."

Jacey chuckled.

"Don't worry about that. A clean city doesn't exist and never will," he said.

"I knew that!"

"How fascinating."

Jacey sighed and rolled his eyes. Sometimes he had to wonder why he, an intelligent and talented man was stuck with these two idiots. The other one had no sense of reality and the other kept repeating three words all the time.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it. But let's do it instead of just arguing." he said.

* * *

Jacey had been right when saying that not even San Francisco was free of criminals and crooks. It didn't take too long to find a small bar that with its dirty and miserable customers seemed to be exactly what they had been looking for.

"Come with us. We want to talk with you," Jacey said and grabbedthe poor victim with him and dragged him out of the bar.

"Hey, what are you -- " the man asked and tried to resist. It was useless though, he looked fragile and was just as weak as he looked like. His face was pale and his clothes looked like he had spent most of his life in some garbage.

"Shut up and talk when we ask something!" Barbara hissed angrily and from her eyes the man saw that she was serious. He glanced around himself looking for help and trying to find someone who might feel compassion towards him.

"Help!" he pleaded, but no one even gave him a look. They were all used to situations like this and thought the man had just waited for too long before paying his loans or something.

They left the bar doors banging and headed deeper to the heart of the city. The man dragged by Jacey whimpered and Barbara glanced at him in despise. What a pathetic idiot.

The man's name was Tom, or that was what everyone called him. He was a miserable thief who never managed to get more than what was enough for a drink or two. No one appreciated him and he didn't mind. What he desired was peace and a nice amount off booze.

"What do you want from me?" he asked and exclaimed when Jacey thrust him against a wall.

"Shut up! We make the questions here!" Barbara snapped. "Understood?"

Tom swallowed and nodded quickly. He glanced at Benjamin who hadn't said anything yet.

"Okay. Where can we find the Dark Hand?" Jacey asked.

"Da -- Dark Hand?" Tom repeated. "I don't know!"

"Wrong answer," Barbara said. She pulled out a knife and pressed the blade on Tom's throat. "Think again."

"But only the members of the Dark Hand know where the HQ is! I am not one of Valmont's men!" Tom insisted.

"No wonder. This guy is too pathetic even for that British bastard," Jacey whispered to Barbara. She chuckled in amusement.

"Then what do you know? You better know something," she said and pressed the knife just enough to make a few drops of blood trickle down Tom's neck. She was getting furious and wanted to rip him apart. Maybe when they had all the information...

"I... uh... I..." Tom stuttered in fright and tried to find a way out of this mess. God, he had never been this afraid! Who were these people and why had they chosen him?

"Yes?"

Tom felt the knife on his throat. He could almost feel it bite deeper...

"Okay... I know where they live," he said quietly.

"Who? Valmont?" Jacey asked.

"No, his Enforcers."

"They live together? That can make me think of something..." Barbara said.

"I -- I don't know! Go and ask them!" Tom said.

"We will. Once you've told us where to find them," Jacey promised.

And Tom told them. After a minute he was no longer alive, but lay on the street throat cut open.

"Did you have to do that?" Jacey asked and glanced at his clothes in disgust. "I just washed these!"

Barbara shrugged and tasted the blood on her knife.

"I just felt like it."

"How fascinating."

Jacey sighed.

* * *

Hak Foo sat on a roof and kept an eye on the street below him. This had been his idea, but now he wasn't sure if it was that good.

Because of those imbeciles he would never get the Ox Talisman.

He didn't like the Talisman and didn't want to use it, but the fact that it existed drove him mad. No matter how much he practised, anyone could beat him with the Talisman.

That disturbed him and that was why he had to get it.

Suddenly he noticed something that seemed suspicious. There were people on the street like always, but three strange persons were there too.

Two men and a woman weren't necessarily very dangerous, but something in them told Hak Foo that they would cause problems. He was experienced enough, could read people and didn't think he could be wrong.

In the next moment he was moving and on his way to warn his partners. They had been so concentrated in Black and Section 13 that had completely forgotten that Jay Flick existed too. If he had been alone he would have remembered, but the presence of those two idiots must have made him slip too.

Hak Foo was fast and reached the others way before Flick's gang.

"Hey, you came back soon. Didn't you just leave?" Ratso asked not looking very surprised. He was making a sandwich. Hak Foo paid him no attention.

"They are coming," he said sharply.

"Huh? Who?" Finn asked. Had Section 13 found them this fast?

"Flick's men. There are three of them," Hak Foo replied.

"Heh, we are four," Ratso said. Everyone glanced at him.

"Ratso, I don't think we can count Black in," Finn stated.

"Well, then we are just as many as them."

"You two are no good. Only I can fight," Hak Foo said.

"Hey, that's not true," Finn stated.

"How can you know they work for Flick? Only Chow has seen them," Ratso asked.

Hak Foo gave him an angry look. "I just know," he said darkly.

Finn sighed. "Fine, whatever. But what are we going to do? We can't just wait here and invite them for tea and cookies," he said.

"We have cookies?" Ratso asked.

"First we need to get Black out of here. He means nothing to them so they might kill him and he is our only card. Once we have got him somewhere safe we can probably fight them," Hak Foo said.

"Pretty good plan," Finn said.

"It's not a plan, it's a solution."

"Um, shouldn't we go now? I think someone just knocked at the door," Ratso said. Everyone froze.

"Damn!" Finn swore and ran to the back window. "We have to go down. Black too," he said and glanced at the man who was tied to a chair.

"And I was just getting used to this sitting around," Black said. To be honest he was grateful for this interruption. Now the criminals had to free him so that he'd be able to escape too and that was his best chance to run from _both_ gangs.

"Don't even try anything stupid. Hak Foo has got no nicer," Finn said while freeing him. He didn't care if he was rough or not and the skin in Black's wrists didn't like the treatment.

The knock at the door could be heard louder.

"Open! We know you are there!" Barbara shouted.

"Not a sound," Finn whispered and gestured everyone to get to the window. Ratso went first, then Black, Hak Foo and finally Finn himself. The fire steps were old and rusty and it was not a good idea for them to go down all at once.

Finn had just got out of the window when the door to the apartment was kicked open. Jacey and Barbara rushed in while Benjamin followed calmly. He walked behind his partners and watched as they ran around opening closets and peering under the beds.

"They must have been here just a while ago!" Jacey said and threw Ratso's sandwich on the floor. Benjamin pointed at the fire steps.

"How fascinating," he said. He tried to knock them just to amuse himself and was very pleased to notice that they fell down when he pushed them.

* * *

Ratso had got down when the steps started falling. The situation wasn't very dangerous to him since there was only a slight chance they would fall on him. And even if they did the old rusty pipes wouldn't hurt him any more than some other injuries he had suffered in his life.

It would be much nastier for those who were still up. Hak Foo knew how to react and jumped down before it all came down, but Black and Finn weren't as fast. They fell with the steps that crashed loudly to the ground.

Finn was the first one to stand up and held his head.

"Ow, that hurt," he muttered and thanked his luck for that he hadn't been at the top of the steps. The fall hadn't been toohigh for either of them, but the iron parts that had fallen on them had hurt. He glanced at Black, but he didn't seem to be hurt either. Or at least he didn't show it. They would both be on bruises the next day.

He looked up, but there was no one in the window.

"We better go, they must be on their way down," he said and shook his head once more. His body ached everywhere, but he guessed he'd survive a while.

And then he realised that Black was gone.

"Hey, he's getting away!" he exclaimed and pointed at the direction where the man had run. Hak Foo rushed after him and Ratso and Finn followed.

"You sure you can run?" Ratso asked.

"Yeah, don't worry about me. They better try harder if they want to hurt me," the Irish man replied.

* * *

Black was not very pleased with himself. He ached and his head hurt worse than in a long while. Usually he felt like this only when he and Jackie had had a rough night. That hadn't happened in years though.

He wasn't seriously hurt, but wouldn't get far if he didn't find a place to stay. Hak Foo wasn't the most intelligent person in his books, but he was a great warrior and Black didn't want to be caught by him.

Section 13 was far from where he was and he didn't think he'd reach any of the secret passageways in time. The best thing to do was to hide somewhere until the criminals gave up. They couldn't chase him for too long because Flick's gang was obviously after them.

And so he headed to the docks. There were more hideouts than anywhere else. He glanced behind him, but saw no one and hid under an old lifeboat.

It was dark and almost quiet around him. Now Black had to think about the situation and make some plans.

Firstly, everything was obviously better now than a moment ago. He was free and the Flick gang had come to keep the Dark Hand busy. Now all he had to do was to find his way to Section 13 and that wouldn't be difficult at all. What could go wrong in a city that was full of people? The criminals couldn't try anything as long as there were witnesses.

Suddenly he heard steps but didn't dare to peer who was coming. He had to settle with listening instead.

"He has to be somewhere here," he heard Finn say.

"He is hiding. We will find him," Hak Foo replied.

"Maybe with time, but what about Flick? They'll arrive here any minute," Finn pointed out. It was silent and Black figured Hak Foo was thinking of something.

"We have to stay and fight them," the warrior decided.

"Hmh. Great plan Hak. Especially if you want to commit a nice suicide," Finn stated.

"Idiot! Only you and I stay. Ratso goes to get help from Valmont while we hold them," the warrior snapped.

"Hey, that sounds better!" Ratso said.

"Well, why aren't you going then?"

* * *

Bennett sat in his car on the way to San Francisco. Now he was finally holding all of the pieces of this puzzle and all he needed were Black and Naoise. Then he could reveal the juicy truth to both of them...

He smiled to himself. Just thinking about the expression on the duo's face got him on a good mood!

* * *

Jackie glanced around.

"Strange," he said.

"What?" Tag asked.

"Jade isn't here. Usually she's always around when something is going on. It is suspiciously quiet..."

Tag shrugged. "Maybe she believed you and went to school?" he suggested.

Jackie lifted a brow.

"... Ah, I see. I'll tell everyone to keep their eyes open," Tag said once he understood.

School? Hah! What had he been thinking?

**To be continued...**


	12. Chapter 11

Yeah yeah, nothing is mine. It's kinda funny actually...

**POSSIBLY POSSIBLE **

**Chapter 11**

"Ow..." Jade muttered. She didn't feel like opening her eyes.They felt heavy, her head ached and she was tired. All the girl wanted was to lie still and drift back to sleep.

Maybe she indeed did that. The next time she found herself thinking about something everything felt much easier. She was even able to open her eyes and have a look around herself.

"Woah," she said to herself and eyed the room. It must have been a storage room once, but now the shelves were empty and trash loitered around.

And Chow was there next to her.

Suddenly Jade remembered everything that had happened. Realising that cleared her thoughts some more and she started to feel pretty sharp again, though she still had a headache. She realised that the bad guys must have brought them both there and that they had had luck when neither had been killed.

Right? Jade glanced at Chow's still figure and to her relief his chest was moving. Good, she wouldn't have wanted to share the room with a dead criminal anyway.

Jade tried to stand up. She did it, but had to sit back soon because the sudden movement made her feel dizzy and made her head throb more. She bit her lip.

"I have to think now," she said. She wasn't afraid or worried, this was an adventure and they never ended badly.

At first she had to find out who their enemies were. Jade didn't think she had ever seen the man who had drugged them, but she figured she would find out his identity sooner or later.

She gave Chow a light punch in the shoulder. Maybe the man knew something she didn't.

"Time to wake up," she said and punched harder when the first attempt turned out to be useless. She didn't get any reaction out of him. Jade frowned and sighed in frustration. She stood up ignoring the dizzy feeling.

Then she aimed a sharp kick at Chow's chest and that made the man open his eyes.

"What..." Chow muttered and looked around himself with eyes that didn't see much. Jade suspected the man felt just as horrible as she had when she had woken up for the first time. She didn't feel any sympathy towards him though.

"Get up. We have things to do," she said. Chow blinked and sat up.

"My head hurts," he said and rubbed his face. Jade realised that maybe he was feeling even worse than she had.

"No time for that. We have to get out of here," she said.

Chow glanced at her and only now seemed to realise that he wasn't alone. "What are you doing here?" he asked and took a look around himself. "And where are we?"

Jade shrugged. "It seems to be a storage room. The maniac killer probably brought us here," she replied.

"The maniac killer?"

"Yeah. Don't you remember anything?" Jade asked lifting a brow.

Chow thought about it and nodded. "I think I remember... something," he said.

"Good. Then you can probably say who that guy was. And why did he want to kill you," Jade said.

Chow glanced at the girl and for a moment he was suspicious. Jade had always been against them and almost all of their plans had been ruined by her and her uncle. Maybe it would be better if he told her nothing.

And then he realised that despite the fact that they didn't like each other they were in the same situation. Jade had an incredible luck so maybe he had a chance to survive this if he knew how to take an advantage of that. If he knew when to stop he could probably even escape and get his freedom back.

"I have no idea of who he is. He seems to have taken Black's place because I haven't seen him since this guy arrived," he replied.

"So you don't know what happened to Black?" Jade asked.

"No. What?"

Jade figured that no one had bothered to tell Chow anything. Why would they have? He didn't have to know anything about those desperate tricks that his comrades were pulling. They would just give him hope and then he would never reveal where the rest of the Dark Hand was.

"Finn and the others have kidnapped Black and are not about to free him unless they get you back," she said simply.

"What? How did they do that?" Chow asked in surprise and he was shocked too. Didn't the others realise what kind of mess they had created? Kidnapping Black? Oh boy...

"I don't have time to explain. I want to get out of here," Jade said in determination. She didn't feel as dizzy as before so she walked to investigate the door. Despite that it was old it seemed to be well built and locked, of course.

She was just about to try and see if she could open it somehow when the lock clicked and someone pushed the door open. Jade backed away and sat down.

Two men stepped in. The other one was the same one who had drugged Jade and Chow, but neither of them had seen the other one. They stopped at the door blocking the exit. The other man had a bird on his shoulder.

"Who are you?" Jade asked. The man looked at her in amuse and opened his mouth, but started to talk to the bird.

"Hey Darling, look. A little girl. Do you like little girls? No? Me neither," he said and caressed the bird's feathers.

"Chirp chirp!" the bird said happily.

Harris coughed and glanced at Flick in despise. "Can't you keep your mouth shut a while?" he asked.

"Don't talk to me like that. I have the right to say anything, right Darling?"

"Chirp!"

"Wow. Does that bird really understand what you say?" Jade asked.

"Yes," Flick replied with pride.

"Chirp!"

Harris rolled his eyes. "We didn't come here to talk about birds," he said in frustration.

"But what?" Chow asked. Harris glanced at Flick.

"If he told me I could reply for him."

Flick looked at everyone. He didn't look like the cruel and cunning crime lord that he was. "I didn't have anything to say. I just wanted to show the prisoners to Darling before we kill them," he said.

"So we are going to kill them? Good," Harris said in relief. They were finally going to get rid of these two.

Jade and Chow didn't look very happy because of this announcement. "Um, couldn't you wait for a while?" Chow asked

"Why?" Flick wanted to know.

"Because... because Darling doesn't want that!" Jade said.

"She doesn't?" Flick asked in uncertainty.

"Come on! They are just trying to fool you!" Harris said sharply.

"Do you want to wait for longer? Do you?" Flick asked Darling's opinion without paying any attention to Harris.

"Chirp..."

Flick nodded looking pleased. "Fine then. If you want to enjoy their death later we can kill them later," he said.

Harris stared at him not believing his ears. "What kind of idiot are you? Do you really think that bird understands anything of what you say or is able to answer? It's almost as stupid as you!" he said. Flick frowned.

"Beware Harris. If you insult me and Darling again it could be that the Sections lose another leader soon," he said.

Harris said no more and the two left locking the door behind them.

"That was... strange," Jade pointed out. Chow could only nod.

* * *

"I sure hope Ratso comes back soon," Finn said once his friend was gone. Hak Foo said nothing. He kept an eye on their surroundings and saw the Flick gang even before Finn even realised they were near.

"They are coming," the warrior said.

"Huh? They are?" Finn turned around and saw that Hak Foo was indeed right. Flick's three goons were coming to their direction and he didn't want to see the result. Not that he was afraid, the fight -- if they got into one -- could become pretty fair, actually.

But they would exchange words at first. Only idiots started fighting in a situation like this without knowing what the other side really wanted.

Jacey, Barbara and Benjamin stopped and stared at them.

"Okay... What do you guys want to have in your shopping basket?" Finn asked.

* * *

Black could hear everything that the criminals said and he followed the situation with interest. This was very exciting -- now it was his turn to tell Jackie about his adventures -- and he would probably get some real evidence against both groups.

"There are many things we want. Killing you is one, but that can wait until later. Maybe we can even make a deal concerning that desire of ours," Jacey said.

"A deal? What is Flick up to?" Finn asked.

"Flick is up to nothing if he doesn't pay us soo -- oof!" Barbara started, but stopped as Jacey elbowed her.

"Shut up!" he hissed angrily. Why did Barbara have to be so impatient and over-excited?

"If you give us Black we are ready to let you go. For a while, at least," Jacey said.

Finn blinked. Black did the same under the boat.

"You want Black? Why?" the Irish man asked.

"We have use for him. He means us more than you do," Jacey replied.

"Uhhuh," Finn stated. "So what? We need him too."

Jacey shrugged and looked very smug. "Hand him over and that is taken care of too. We have your friend and a small trade could work out."

This was yet another shock for Finn, Hak Foo and Black.

"How in the name of John Travolta did you get Chow?" Finn asked.

"We have... connections inside Section 13. But I won't say more. Give Black to us and your friend walks free today. If we are on a good mood we may free the girl too."

"The girl?" Finn asked.

"We caught a young Chinese girl. A really annoying case, appeared there just when we didn't need any interruptions."

Black felt cold. He didn't even have to guess who they were talking about and that made him fear for Jade. He knew the girl could take care of herself, but now she had no one to help her.

Finn chuckled. "That has to be Chan's niece. You are doing us a favour if you kill her," he said. Maybe he felt slightly uncomfortable when saying that, but he let no one see it.

"Then maybe that is what we are going to do. But we want Black. Without him you are not getting your friend back," Jacey said.

Finn and Hak Foo glanced at each other. Why had they let Black go? If they had managed to keep him a little longer...

"Uh, we have to think about it," Finn said and smiled nervously to their three enemies. "Come on, Hak."

The Irish man dragged the warrior with him behind the corner and looked at him asking for advice.

"What are we going to do now, Hak? This is probably our only real chance of getting Chow back. Where do we find Black now?" he asked.

"We have to hunt," was the warrior's answer.

"Nah," Finn said and glanced at his companion in thought. "If we cut your hair you could probably fool them a while..." he suggested.

Hak Foo blinked.

"No!" he said. "Besides, you look a lot more like Black than I do."

"No I don't! I and Black have nothing in common, absolutely nothing!" Finn replied slightly insulted and Hak Foo peered behind the corner.

"They are getting impatient. We better come up with something," he said.

"Let's keep talking a moment. Ratso will come with Valmont soon and we can catch those three. After that we'll force them to tell where Chow is," Finn decided.

"So you think Valmont is coming?"

"Sure, why wouldn't he?"

* * *

"So we are after Black, the Flick gang is after us, Section 13 is after everyone and dogs are after cats," Ratso explained.

Valmont leaned his chin on his hand and glanced at his Enforcer looking rather bored.

"Right..." he said.

* * *

"We are not pleased with this deal," Finn said when he and Hak Foo returned to the others. Barbara frowned.

"What? What else do you want?" she asked.

"The girl. She has caused us a lot of trouble and we would like to play with her a while," Finn replied to win some time.

"I don't know... " Jacey said. "She was pretty and according to you words very clever too. I like clever little girls and it has been a while since I enjoyed the company of one."

"How fascinating..." Benjamin said.

"... not," Barbara finished. The two weren't as intelligent as Jacey, but they thought some of the man's desires were pretty disgusting.

Black didn't like this at all. Jade was almost like a niece to him and he'd never forgive himself if that monster touched her.

But what could he do? No matter which of those groups got Jade, her future wouldn't look very bright. Flick's men and the Dark Hand wanted only to hurt her.

If someone didn't stop them...

He didn't have to consider his next move. He could never look Jackie in the eyes again if he didn't help Jade.

"You may end this ridiculous conversation," he said and left his hideout. "I am right here."

Both groups stared at him in surprise. Then Jacey smiled.

"This was a nice thing to happen," he said.

"You'll free Chow now, right?" Finn asked hopefully.

Barbara laughed. "Forget about it! We got Black without your help so we owe you nothing," she said.

"But -- "

"Shut up! Be glad we are not killing you!" Jacey said.

"We are not?" Barbara asked in surprise. "But didn't Flick tell us to do that?"

"So what? We give him Black and demand our payment. Only then we'll take care of the rest," Jacey said. He walked to Black and eyed him.

"Can I trust you and that you'll come along without resistance?" he asked.

Black nodded looking dark and his eyes revealed all the despise he felt towards Jacey.

"I'll do anything as long as Jade is safe," he assured.

"Good. This is starting to be the way it should," Barbara said. She, Jacey, Benjamin and Black wasted no time, but left.

Hak Foo and Finn stood there staring after them and feeling stupid and useless.

"That didn't actually work out like I had planned," Finn stated.

"No," was Hak Foo's short answer.

"We have to do something. We lost Black and if we just stand here we are going to lose Chow too," the Irish man said.

"True," Hak Foo replied just as shortly as before. Then he left after the Flick gang and Finn could only follow.

"We'll follow them to their hideout, make a stunning enter and take what we want. Why didn't I think of that?" he asked himself.

* * *

"Ugh, ketchup is really horrible in San Francisco," Bennett muttered to himself and threw his hot dog away. He wasn't hungry anymore.

He had just arrived in the city and his whole body ached from the numerous hours he had spent in his car. And he was also on a bad mood.

Bennett had phoned the studio and asked to have a film group with him so that he could tape the expression on Black's and Naoise's face when the truth came out, but he had got no one. All cameras were following how Chris was finally reunited with his grandmother and no one was interested in his case.

"If we have time we can make a small extra for the next season episodes," he had been told.

"Damn," he muttered to himself. No he would have to get them in another TV show. There had to be a channel that was interested in them.

Suddenly he saw something on the other side of the street.

Black.

Bennett thanked his luck and was just about to shout at the man and arouse his attention, but then he paid more attention to the group. Black wasn't alone, but he had three very shady characters with him. Bennett didn't know them, but a life as a detective had taught him to be careful.

"This is interesting," he said and started to follow them. What could Black have to do with them?

* * *

Black memorised every street they passed. The criminals didn't seem to mind and that could mean onlywo things.

Either they were very stupid or he would get no opportunity to tell anyone about this.

Jacey, Barbara and Benjamin didn't really talk to each other and Black had decided that he didn't like them. Finn with his comrades had been different, with them he could have had a conversation at times. Black despised both groups, but the Flick gang made him sickas well.

When they had walked some good time and wandered deeper and deeper into the heart of the city Jacey finally stopped in front of a deserted pet store. He took a key from his pocket and opened the door. Barbara pushed Black in and the trio followed him.

Black stopped.

"Harris!" he exclaimed when he saw his former mentor. "What are you doing here?"

Harris smiled at him. "I have many reasons to be here. One is that I want to see you going down," he said almost fatherly.

Black didn't know what to think and he didn't catch any of his own thoughts. Harris... why was the man connected to something like this?

"I..." he started, but didn't know what to say. What could he have said?

"Well, Harris, don't take all the attention away from me and Darling," Flick stated. Black turned to look at the man who he believed to be behind it all. It was a much safer subject and for a while he could think of something else than Harris.

"What is going on? Why am I here?" he asked.

Flick chuckled.

"That is very simple. We both want to make you pay," he said.

"But -- uh... I don't understand," Black said and looked at Harris as if looking for help. He didn't get any, but Harris answered with a cold gaze.

"You put Flick in prison while you knew that he was my nemesis. That it was my dream to be his arrester," the leader of Section 4 said sharply.

"And I hate you because you are the one who put me behind bars," Flick added.

Black blinked.

"And that is why you've cooked this mess?" he asked in suspicious. All the trouble because of something like that? "Ridiculous!"

"Is it?" Flick asked smiling. "We shall see that once we are done."

* * *

"Woah, this place isn't very great. Flick has to be an idiot," Finn said when they arrived at the shop some time after the Flick gang. They had followed the group and managed to do it without anyone seeing them.

"Hope so," Hak Foo said eyeing the building. "Cat climbs on the roof," he said then and started to climb up.

Finn was about to follow, but glanced behind him quickly. There was no one. He could almost swear that he had heard something... nah.

"Hey, wait for me," he said and hurried after his comrade.

* * *

Bennett sighed in relief when it looked like that none of the criminals had noticed him. He licked his lips. This was the perfect story! He didn't know what was going on, but it had to be something very important. He could barely wait to find out.

He peered behind the corner, but saw no one. Good. No one would notice him either.

Something would happen soon and once it was all over he would appear and collect everything to his own pocket.

**To be continued...**


	13. Chapter 12 aka CRAP

**POSSIBLY POSSIBLE**

**Chapter 12**

"So, Darling, do you want Black to have a slow death, or a fast one?" Flick asked. This time the bird didn't reply.

"What is it? Why don't you talk to me?"

"The sane thing to do would be to get rid of the prisoners. If we don't do it the situation might turn against us," Harris stated.

"You have to let Jade go. I came here when I was promised that she wouldn't be hurt," Black said. Now that a few moments had passed he had got past most of his confusion and was his own rational self.

"You shut up. You have nothing to say in this," Flick pointed out.

Black nodded to his left where Jacey, Barbara and Benjamin sat looking pretty bored.

"They promised that Jade can go," he said.

"They don't decide it. We are the ones in lead," Harris said.

"No, I and Darling are. You are just a lackey to me," Flick remarked.

"A lackey? Without my help you would still be in prison!"

"Exactly. You helped me out, so you are a lackey."

"Hey, when do we get the money?" Barbara threw in. No one replied her.

Black looked around himself when the criminals argued. The room wasn't very big and to his right was a door. He was sure that Jade was kept behind it and he really wanted to make sure that she was all right.

There weren't many pieces of furniture, only Flick's chair and a wooden table. There was a window up in the ceiling, which was pretty funny. It was impossible for light to get in through the high buildings that surrounded the small shop. It was the only small building nearby and one of the few that still existed in San Francisco.

Harris shook his head.

"Never mind. Let's just take care of Black before it's too late," he said.

* * *

Jade tapped her finger against the floor in thought. It was difficult to get out of the warehouse when the room behind the door was filled with crooks and neither she nor Chow could reach the window in the ceiling. Not even when she was standing on Chow's shoulders.

"This is the most boring prison in the world," she muttered.

"No it isn't, I can name many that are worse," Chow pointed out.

Jade shrugged. "But a good thing is that the crazy idiot is totally controlled by his bird. There should be no trouble with him."

"Unless he thinks the bird wants out death."

"Um..."

"Let's hope the chick is in a good mood."

Jade sighed in frustration. "This is so stupid! If I had a talisman or something I would get out. It's so boring to just sit here," she said.

Suddenly they both heard sound from the roof and raised their eyes to the window.

"What... " Chow muttered and stood up. He still felt slightly dizzy and sick, but this was too interesting.

"There is someone in the window," Jade pointed out. They hadn't seen anyone yet, but the sounds revealed that there indeed was someone.

And then they saw Hak Foo's face behind the glass.

They both almost exclaimed the man's name aloud, but then they remembered that their capturers would hear it too. Finn's face appeared soon too and though Jade didn't like the criminals she was happy to see them both.

Hak Foo fiddled some with the window and was able to remove the glass. "We don't have a rope," he said then.

"Right, we don't," Finn muttered. He peered down. "You okay Chow?"

"Yeah," Chow replied. "How did you know to come here?" They had to speak quietly in order to not attract any unwanted attention.

Finn shrugged. "The crooks stole Black from us and we followed them here," he said.

"Those guys have Black? We have to help him," Jade said taking part in the conversation for the first time. All three criminals turned to stare at her.

"Yeah, right. We'd be pretty stupid if we endangered ourselves for him," Finn chuckled.

"Yeah," Chow added.

Jade watched the trio, starting to feel desperate. She had no doubt about were the crooks about to hurt Black or not and there was no way she could let that happen. She trusted herself and why wouldn't she? She had fought demon and criminals after all, and won every time.

But what were her odds now that she had no magic on her side?

"You have to help him. Without him you would never have found here. And besides, if you don't do it I'll scream and the game shall be lost for all of us," she said in determination.

"You wouldn't do that. You'd be lost yourself too," Chow stated.

"Actually she would do that and sacrifice herself. She is a Chan, remember?" Finn remarked.

"Oh yeah. I didn't think of that."

"The small one is right. We will make fools of ourselves if we don't avenge all this and drive them away," Hak Foo announced.

"Hey, wait a minute..." Finn said, but Hak Foo had already made up his mind and jumped down to Jade and Chow. "This isn't the way things are supposed to be."

Jade grinned. She had never even in her wildest dreams thought of working together with the Black Tiger.

"Sure it can!" she said happily. "Hey Hak Foo, help me climb up."

"I am going to rush through the door and take care of them all," the warrior replied. There was no way he would let a pathetic girl boss him around.

"If you do that wait until I'm miles from here," Chow said and shot a yarning glance up in the roof.

"Come on. If you really are going to do something you shouldn't do it there. It would be one of the best suicide attacks I've heard of, but it's not a plan. Come up from there," Finn said.

"Sounds good," Jade said with slight sarcasm. Hak Foo caught the girl's waist and lifted her up to Finn.

"I'm going to hate myself for this," the Irish man muttered. Here he was helping one of their worst enemies... so pathetic and ridiculous...

Getting Chow up was a bit harder, but he was a short and light man and Hak Foo had no difficulties to hold him on his shoulders. Chow didn't have the best balance in the world - oh, how he hated to be lifted above the ground - but he was also able to climb up.

And Hak Foo wasn't any real problem. He was tall and strong and was able to grab the window sill with one jump, and then climb up. He didn't accept anyone's help, though Finn tried to assist him.

Now the fourwere on the roof and eyed each other.

"Okay, let's get out of here," Chow said then.

"But what about Black? How can you leave him?" Jade asked.

"What kind of question is that? Sure we can! He is our enemy," Finn said. He thought that maybe he should have felt some compassion for his... brother... but he just didn't. You didn't start to care about someone you hate just because he turns out to be your relative.

"Aww... Where is Jackie when I need him?" Jade asked. She couldn't leave Black alone!

"The Tiger will not retreat," Hak Foo said.

"Come on, Hak Foo. You know how stupid this is," Finn commented.

"Then it is your own problem if you are fired."

"Huh?"

"Valmont will not like it when he hears that we rescued Chow, but didn't do anything to destroy Flick," Hak Foo said.

"Oh yeah, I had forgotten about Big V. He would never understand that we appreciate our own health."

"So, are you helping me?" Jade asked hopefully.

"No. We are just doing something that suits you too," Finn stated.

"Cool. I have always wanted to part of a criminal battle!"

"I think I might be starting to know how Chan feels..."

Hak Foo had listened to this a while, but now he had had enough.

"Are we just going to stand here for the rest of the day or do something?" he asked.

"Hak Foo is right. We have to do something before they notice we are gone. We would lose the element of surprise," Jade said.

Finn shot her a look. "Since when did you become the one who decides what we do?" he asked.

"And why do we even allow her to come with us?" Chow added.

"I have a feeling she would come even if we didn't let her. Besides, if she is with us her luck will protect us too," Finn said. "But that doesn't mean that she can do anything she wants. We know more about this situation and can come up with a plan."

"Aww... " Jade muttered, but decided that as soon as the criminals' plan was good she could play along. If they turned out to be as stupid as when they were fighting against Jackie she would change the plans - or come up with new ones.

"That kid is so annoying..." Chow muttered and though Jade heard it she didn't care.

"Okay, okay, so we are facing at least the three guys that brought Black here," Finn said in order to show the conversation the right direction.

"And that bird addict and the traitor," Jade said.

"They won't cause trouble," Chow added.

"The best thing to do would be to lure Flick's goons out. Then we'd have two opponents to face and could take care of them. If we had guns, that is," Finn said.

"We need Valmont at the moment," Chow said.

"Actually Ratso is on his way to get him, but there's no way they'll find here," Finn said and rubbed his chin in thought. "This could still be easy. We just do like they do in movies."

"Which means?"

"Some of us distract the crooks and lure the three killers away and the rest stay here and take care of those who are left. They must be idiots if they haven't killed any of their prisoners yet and stupid criminals are easy to defeat," Finn replied.

"Yeah, I have experience with that," Jade stated.

"I and Chow will do that," Hak Foo said.

"What? Why me?" Chow asked.

"The best way to distract them is to make them believe that at least one of you has got away. I will come because we will most likely have to fight. And you come because of the escape distraction and I will not team up with that little girl," Hak Foo said.

"Wow. Did he really say all that at once?" Chow asked.

"Yeah, pretty amazing, huh? I and Ratso have experienced the same."

"Do something! No wonder you always lose," Jade said. They had spent more time talking than rescuing her and Chow!

"Okay, okay. Little brats are always so impatient..." Finn muttered.

* * *

Because they really didn't have time or anything else to say they decided to finally get into business. Finn and Chow still felt uncertain and neither liked the idea of risking themselves for Black. They knew better than well that Black would never do anything for them.

_If the truth ever comes out I can at least use this as a weapon against him. He owes me,_ Finn thought with dark pleasure. Maybe he would have to play a protective big brother and rush to help when little bro got into trouble. _Heh, that was a funny thought._

He and Jade moved near the other skylight and made sure that no one in the room saw them. The Irish man didn't like the idea of being alone with Chan's niece, but maybe the girl's infamous fortune would help him too.

"Try to get rid of the trio or at least lure them away," he said to Hak Foo and Chow, who had jumped down from the roof.

"I know what to do," he said and kicked the trash pin near the door making it fall.

* * *

Everyone who was inside flinched when they heard the noise and Jacey rushed at the door to see what was going on. He saw Hak Foo and Chow who were on their way away.

"Hey, our prisoner is getting away!" Jacey exclaimed.

"So what? We don't need him anymore," Barbara said.

"Idiot! They will tell about us and send someone here!" Harris said angrily. "Go and get them!"

"Do it. Darling says this place is too crowded anyway," Flick added.

Jacey, Barbara and Benjamin glanced at each other. Flick just ordered them around and still hadn't paid.

"Fine. We will be in trouble too if the whole San Francisco starts looking for us," Jacey said finally and the trio rushed after the escaping criminals.

Black frowned in thought. He had seen what was outside too, but he hadn't seen Jade anywhere. Where was the girl?

* * *

"I really want to hear everything when this is over," Chow said to Hak Foo, who didn't reply. They had noticed that the Flick gang was after them and they were leading them far away from the others.

They didn't make the mistake of running to public streets because that could have made Jacey and the rest give up and go back. It was better to stay on dark alleys and find a deserted place somewhere. It was more dangerous, yes, but gave them the great opportunity to get rid of the trio without any interruptions.

"Why are we helping Black?" Chow continued his monologue. He really didn't like Black, especially after the treatment he had got in Section 13.

"We are not helping him! We are getting rid of our enemy and Black just happens to get free because of it," Hak Foo finally bothered to answer.

That was enough for Chow, because he was not on the mood to argue with Hak Foo. The man wasn't really his friend despite that they worked together. And it wasn't Chow's fault, really, at least not in his own opinion. He, Finn and Ratso had tried to make Hak Foo a little friendlier, but he hadn't changed at all.

The Flick gang was still after them and Chow was starting to wonder how far they were going to run. Escaping wasn't like Hak Foo, so the man had to have something in his mind.

"I think we are far enough by now," Chow stated. He got no answer from Hak Foo, but the man ran a while before finally stopping.

"We are now," he said. Then he grabbed the ladders on the wall and started to climb up. The ladders looked to be fine, and after a moment of hesitation Chow dared to follow Hak Foo's examples. He kept his eyes shut though, he hated heights too much.

"Hey, wait for me Hak," Chow hoped that Finn could have been with them. The Irish man wasn't as good in fighting as Hak Foo, but he usually knew what to do.

They reached the roof after a while and Chow peered down. He had to draw back immediately, the building was even higher than he had thought! During the short moment he looked down he saw Jacey and the rest and heard Barbara's angry exclaim.

"They are there," he said.

"Did they see you?" Hak Foo asked.

"I think so."

"Good."

Chow looked around. The roof had much room, there wasn't much extra junk around. In the middle was a small hut thingy that probably lead to the floors below. There didn't seem to be a lock in the door and he tried it quickly. It opened with ease. Good. They would be able to escape if Hak Foo's plan didn't work.

"They are coming up," Hak Foo announced.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Kick the ladders down!"

It wasn't a very fair way to start a fight, but Hak Foo had never really been a friend of fair game. Besides, the Flick gang had done the exact same to them.

"Angry bear... uh... kicks the ladders down!" he exclaimed and did as he said. The ladders started to fall with a nasty creek after a few kicks. They didn't fall all the way though, but were left to lean against the opposite building. When he stepped next to Hak Foo Chow saw Jacey, Barbara and Benjamin hanging on the ladders with their hands.

"And now?" he asked. Hak Foo stared in front of himself.

"We wait."

They didn't have to do that for very long, because Jacey and Barbara managed to lift themselves on the ladders and use them as a bridge. Benjamin wasn't agile or strong enough, but Barbara helped him up and together the trio climbed on the roof of the opposite building.

* * *

For a while they all just stood there and stared at each other. Then Jacey frowned.

"Let's show them," he said. Before neither Barbara nor Benjamin even realised what he was up to had he prepared himself and jumped on the other side where Hak Foo and Chow were.

Barbara and Benjamin glanced at each other and made a move to follow the example of their partner. Then they froze when they saw what was going on the other side.

Jacey had barely managed to gain his balance before Hak Foo had already caught him and pushed him down from the roof. Jacey fell screaming and then there was silence after a nice "thud" sound.

"How fascinating," Benjamin stated.

"It sure was," Barbara replied. She glanced down, then at Hak Foo, then at Benjamin and then at Hak Foo again.

"Flick didn't pay us so we can quit now, right?" she asked.

"How fasc - " Benjamin started, but Barbara didn't let him finish.

"I take that was 'yes'. Come on!" she said and grabbed the shorter man's collar. The duo disappeared as soon as possible.

"I don't even want to say what that was," Chow muttered and peered down.

* * *

At the same timewhen Hak Foo and Chow were taking care of the Flick gang were Finn and Jade trying to come up with something.

"Come on, try to understand that you can't just rush into a situation like that," Finn said in frustration.

"Why not? There are just the two idiots and they are no problem. They are already fighting with each other," Jade said. She moved closer to the skylight and peered down. "They don't even have a gun and Black is not tied."

"Hey, get away from there! They might see you!" Finn said and drew Jade back.

"Well, at least something would happen then," the girl muttered. She still found it a bit hard to believe that she had made the criminals help their enemy. It was too good to be true.

"It is sometimes better if nothing happens. Just sit there in silence while I do the thinking," Finn scolded. Jade frowned and looked around. Her eyes found a strange peace of metal. She ran to it, caught it in her hand and threw it threw through the skylight.

* * *

A piece of metal fell through the window and shreds of glass few around. Flick exclaimed in surprise and Darling flew from his shoulder.

"Darling! Where did you go?" he asked in worry. For a while it seemed that he was about to go after the bird, but then he - to Harris's and Black's surprise - got a hold of himself.

"What was that?" Flick asked.

"I think it was a piece of metal that flew throughthe skylight," Black stated. He glanced up to see what was going on, but he saw no one.

"I told you we should have killed everyone when we had the chance! Our prisoners have escaped and if we don't do it now we will lose our opportunity to get rid of Black," Harris said with a voice that was the mixture of anger and worry.

"Well what do you want me to do? Shoot him right there?"

"Yes!"

"Fine then," Flick said and drew a gun inside his suit. "We have been waiting for this," he said and only now did he become the criminal Harris knew.

Black wasn't about to just stand there and get shot, but a quick glance around told him that he didn't have many options. Harris stood between him and the door so he couldn't just rush out of the shop, and there wasn't really any protective furniture.

The only possible thing was Flick's chair and Black wasted no time in leaping behind it. Flick raised his arm to aim. He knew the chair wouldn't protect Black.

He never pressed the trigger, though.

"Chirp chirp!"

"Darling?" Flick turned around when he heard the voice of his pet and Harris felt like giving him a hard punch.

"Give that to me!" he snapped and snatched the gun from Flick. The crime lord barely noticed it because he was too busy trying to see Darling flying somewhere near the ceiling.

"You die now Black!" Harris said and tried the same thing that Flick a moment ago. Unfortunately his attempt was doomed too because Finn jumped right on him. Or fell was actually a better word, he didn't do that voluntarily.

"Oops. I didn't push you on purpose. My hand slipped," Jade exclaimed down at them. The gun had flown from Harris's hand and he and Finn lay in a mixed heap on the floor.

"I hate that brat..." Finn muttered and tried to get up.

"Ditto," Harris replied angrily. He tried to stand up too, but it turned out to be quite difficult when another man was on top of him. Finn wasn't feeling any better either.

Black stared at the scene in confusion.

Flick had climbed on a table and was trying to lure Darling back to him, one of the Dark Hand Enforcers had fell on Harris and Jade was on the roof grinning and looking very pleased with herself.

He took the gun before Harris had the time to touch it again.

"Jade, what is going on here?" Black asked.

"I teamed up with the Dark Hand so that I could save you," the girl said happily. Black took another look at the criminals.

"The Dark Hand wanted to free me?"

Jade shrugged. "Well, not really. But they wanted to get rid of Flick and in this case it is almost the same thing."

"... Fine, but that doesn't matter now. The most important thing is to get everything in order," Black said and turned to point at Flick with the gun. "Get down."

Flick shot him an angry glance.

"I am not going anywhere without Darling," he said and turned his attention back to the bird. "Come to daddy, little one. Come on."

"If I were you I'd be worried about this dude here," Finn said while finally standing up. Black knew the Irish man was right, but he didn't like that. The truth wasn't very nice.

"Harris..." he said turning to his old teacher and friend.

Harris glared at him, but instead of saying anything rushed for the door. Black raised the gun.

"Don't move. You know me well enough to know that I'll shoot anyone if I have to," he said.

Harris hesitated, glanced at the door and gave up. Anger and bitterness didn't die in his eyes though, but he glared at everyone in the room.

"This is all you fault..." he muttered.

"All right people. Go in that corner and do nothing," Black said sharply. "You too," he added when Finn didn't move a muscle.

"Hey, I saved you! If I hadn't jumped you'd be riddled with bullets!" the Irish man stated.

"That doesn't change the fact that I am going to have to arrest you," Black said and only now he thought of something. "Jade, where are the rest of the criminals?" he asked.

"The Flick gang? Hak Foo and Chow are taking care of them," the girl replied.

"I don't like this. I might not be enough to hold such an amount of law breakers," Black muttered. The situation wasn't really bad though. Everything was clear now and he would soon be able to return to his normal life. Or to a life that was as normal as it was possible after this.

He glanced atthe sulking Harris and decided that he would have to think of that on his free time. Now he had more urgent problems.

"Jade, do you think you could run to the nearest phone and call Jackie here? Tell him to bring help," he said. It was a silly question, of course Jade could do that. But he felt that he had to ask the question anyway.

"Sure thing, Black," Jade said cheerfully and disappeared from view. She climbed down from the roof and ran away. There had to be a phone booth somewhere.

If Jade had glanced around she might have seen a man, who was pretty dang pleased with himself.

"I think it is my turn to make an appearance," Bennett said to himself.

* * *

Black made sure he was ready to shoot any of the criminals if they tried anything. He was perfectly calm, this kind of situation was not new to him.

"If you don't try anything stupid, nothing will happen," he said. He was worried for Harris, he was clearly the only one in rage. Darling had returned to its master and Flick seemed to be surprisingly co-operative. And Finn glared at him looking bored.

Suddenly the door was opened. First Black thought that Hak Foo and Chow had come back to help their partner.

"Bennett!" he exclaimed in surprise. He hadn't really heard of the man during the time he had done his job and at times he had thought the man wasn't even trying.

"I have found your brother, Mister Black," Bennett said and closed the door after.

"You have?" Black asked in surprise. He recovered in the blink of an eye though. "This might not be the right time to tell me about that," he continued nodding towards his gun and the criminals.

Bennett snorted. "This is the perfect moment." he said.

"What do you mean?" Black asked.

"The history of your family is very interesting. Let me tell you something about it," Bennett said.

"This is not a good moment. I have three dangerous criminals here, Flick, Harris and Finn, so I really don't have the time to - " Black started, but Bennett interrupted him.

"Finn? He is Finn?" he asked. There were probably many with that name in San Francisco, but how many of them looked Irish?

Finn frowned and licked his lips. This couldn't be happening... That TV clown just couldn't ruin his life like this!

"Black is right. Maybe we should concentrate on what is important," he said.

"The name of Naoise's father is Seamus and he came from Ireland with his family. Things weren't good for them here so Seamus had to take part in criminal activities to bring food to the table. Your mother found out and left him," Bennett said to Black ignoring all objections.

"What? Why did they allow Naoise to live with a criminal? Why didn't my mother take him with her?" Black asked.

That was a question that had been in Finn's mind quite often. He had wondered about it since he had been old enough to understand things and even in the middle of a criminal life it had bothered him at some nights.

Why had his mother abandoned him?

"Seamus didn't want to lose his son so he sought help from the crime lord he worked for. He bribed the judge and made the press spread stories of Angela's so called drinking problem. Your mother would have taken Naoise with her, but these things stopped her from doing that," Bennett replied. He dramatised his words on purpose to impress Black more.

Black blinked. "I had no idea," he said.

Harris observed the situation with interest. If Black got confused enough anyone would be able to make an escape from the room.

"And the story just gets more interesting," Bennett said. Finn wanted to attack him and force him to be silent. He felt he was trapped and the whole room had become somehow... crowded.

If Black found out... What would he do? What would they do? Finn wanted to think that nothing would change, but that would have been too naive. A thing like this would touch both them and those who were close to them.

_When Big V finds out... He will never shut up,_ he thought to himself.

"Naoise grew up to be like his father and he was involved with crime at a young age. He hasn't changed at all, but is part of a criminal organisation this very day."

"Naoise is a criminal?" Black asked in shock. The wishful images he had been having were crushed on that one moment.

"Yes, and in San Francisco too."

The door was opened again and Jade stepped in.

"Hey, who are you?" she askedBennett. "... Anyway, Jackie and Tag will be here in a minute."

"This makes no sense anymore," Black muttered to himself. What was Bennett trying to say? And was he deaf or why couldn't he realise that he had no time for this? The whole scene reminded him of "The Bold and the Beautiful".

"I... appreciate what you have done for me, but couldn't we talk about this later? I am busy," he tried again.

"Aren't you interested in knowing the surname of your brother?"

"Once I have time - "

"It's Finn."

It was silent for a while. Everyone who had something to do with the matter could hear their own heart beating. Finn closed his eyes for a moment and really hoped that when he opened then again he would be somewhere very else.

"What?" Black's voice asked and Finn opened his eyes for the cruel truth. Damn...

"An incredible coincidence, isn't it? Naoise Finn, your brother, is part of the Dark Hand. We can get a hell of a story out of this. The whole America will love it!" Bennett triumphed.

"What?" Black asked.

And in the next instant the whole situation was turned upside down. Harris and Flick were suddenly on the move and rushed for the door. Harris wrenched it open and both ran away.

"Hey, they are getting away!" Jade exclaimed.

"What?" Black asked.

"Aww, do I have to do everything alone?" the girl asked and ran after the criminals. Once she was outside she realised what had just been said inside. She almost stopped to glance behind her, but then she realised what was truly important.

Despite that she was a very agile girl Jade really had no chance to catch two grown men. That was why she was very happy to notice that they hadn't got far.

"Hi, Jackie!" she exclaimed happily and greeted her uncle who rant to her. Two agents from Section 13 were making sure Harris and Flick got nowhere. Harris was trying to tell that he was one of them, but Tag was there to make sure he fooled no one.

"Jade, what is going on here? Where is Black?" Jackie asked. Jade pointed behind herself.

"He's in there, but I don't think it is a good idea to go there right now," the girl said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well... I think Black might want to have a word or two with his brother first."

* * *

The situation inside hadn't really changed.

"What?" Black asked. Finn was starting to feel that the whole thing had shocked Black much more than him.

Bennett had a wide smile on his face. "I have found your brother, just as I promised."

"But... he can't be my brother!" Black stuttered.

"I thought the exactly same thing when I found out," Finn remarked dryly.

"How long have you known?"

"Since you showed that picture in television."

"What? And you didn't tell me anything?"

"Should I have? You would have just arrested me!"

"Dang right! That's my job."

"Then why do you make those silly questions?"

"Hey, could you two talk a little slower so that I can write it all down?" Bennett's voice interrupted the argument.

"What? You are taking notes of this?" Finn asked.

"Of course. I just got a brilliant idea. Who needs a live TV show when we can make a movie!" Bennett triumphed.

"A movie?" Black repeated.

"Yes! The whole world can hear your tragic story! Imagine the money and fame and... and the Oscars!"

Black and Finn glanced at each other.

"The world will find out that I am _his_ brother?" they asked at the same time and pointed at each other.

"Yes."

"No way. I won't give you the rights to use my name," Finn said.

"Me neither."

"But - " Bennett tried. It seemed that he had only now realised that Black and Finn weren't as happy as he was.

Black sighed. "Why don't you leave us alone? I'll call you." he said. _As if. If I never hear of him again I will be very happy,_ he thought.

Bennett hesitated, but agreed then.

"Remember to call!" he exclaimed and marched through the door.

* * *

"All right, he came out too. We can probably go in now," Jackie said.

"Nah, I don't think so," Jade replied.

"But we have to arrest the Dark Hand," Tag pointed out.

"The Dark Hand? Hak Foo and Chow must have noticed how you arrived here, so they are miles away by now. And Finn, I think Black can take care of him," Jade said.

"But we should get him out of there so that Black can speak with his brother," Jackie suggested.

"... not really. Finn is Black's brother."

Jackie's eyes widened and he looked like an owl.

"What? How?"

"Don't ask. I'm not good in Biology."

"But - "

"Maybe Black will explain it all once he has settled this," Tag said.

"Maybe you are right," Jackie admitted. Boy, was he curious!

* * *

Finn and Black looked at each other.

"So..." Black said.

"I have nothing to say," Finn replied immediately. "I just want out of here and go on with my life."

"You think this doesn't concern you at all?"

"Yes, if I don't pay attention to it."

"So you want to forget all about this?"

"And you don't?"

Black had to think. Finn wasn't the kind of brother he had wanted to find and this unexpected revelation hadn't made him like the Irish man any more than before. Maybe he wanted to forget this matter too.

But could he do that?

"You can't just pass something like this," he said. Finn snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Then what do you want to do? Go out and have a drink and some brotherly fun?" Huh, saying that felt weird. "I don't like you, you don't like me. Your job is to arrest me and I have to avoid you at all costs, or even better, get rid of you. That's it."

"You don't happen to know the number of a good family therapist?" Black asked with a very weak smile.

"Huh?" Finn had never thought Black would be able to joke. At least not at a moment like this. "I'm out of here."

Black neither said nor did anything when Finn left. What was there to do? He was too confused to say if he wanted the man to disappear as soon as possible, or to stay and talk.

Both options felt good.

* * *

"Finn, where were you?" Chow asked when Finn stepped in. They were in a building that served as a temporary Dark Hand HQ. They didn't dare to return to their apartment since Black knew where it was.

"I had to take care of some things," Finn replied.

"Sorry I couldn't help. Valmont didn't want to listen," Ratso said. He had heard part of the story from Hak Foo and Chow and he was slightly sorry for having missed it all.

"Nah, it doesn't matter," Finn said. He barely glanced at his friends and seemed to be thinking of something only he could understand.

"Uh, you okay?" Chow asked. Finn was being very strange again.

"Yeah, sure. I just need to thinkabout something."

* * *

In the evening captain Black and Jackie were having a conversation in Black's office.

"This is unbelievable," Black said and stared at the picture in his hand. Jackie felt very uneasy; he had no idea of what he should have said.

"What are you going to do?" he asked.

Black placed the photo on his desk. "I don't know. What should I do?" he asked and he made the question mostly for himself. "Nothing should change, I guess."

"What do you mean?" Jackie asked.

"It's my responsibility to arrest him and I will do that one day. And he won't turn good because of this. So what is there to change?"

"I don't know... Maybe if you - "

"Figure things out? It's not that simple."

Jackie shrugged.

"No, it isn't," he admitted. He felt bad for his friend and yet he knew there was no chance of him being able to understand what he was going through. "But maybe with time...?"

"Yes, maybe. Or maybe not."

**THE END**


End file.
